


Grace Under Fire

by CallMeJubilee



Category: Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M, Foursome, Gangs, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-02-15 04:40:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2216172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallMeJubilee/pseuds/CallMeJubilee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"No matter what happens, they'll never see us sweat."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

GUF

Skillfully wipping off her .44 Magnum she glanced over at her nephew playing "Doodle Jump" on the new tablet she had bought him prior to coming home today, now she was just waiting for her boyfriends to get there so they could leave and bust a few moves before nightfall. And yes, that's boyfriends with a 's' as in more than one... plural... multiple.

Tiredly she put the gun down and went over to the duffle bag she dropped on the floor to open it and pulled out bundles of hundred dollar bills. 

"Aunt Leigh-Anne?" Kailum, her nephew, asked looking up from his game and at her.

Leigh-Anne immediately dropped the money on the floor and briskly walked to the child and squatted down to be eye level with him, everytime he talked he had her full attention.

"Yeah, babe?" She cupped his face in both hands and kissed his cheek. "What's wrong? Do you need to go to the bathroom? Are you hungry?"

He was a soft spoken child, never speaking above a whisper, he would susurrate every word.

"No, I don't have to use the bathroom...and I'm kinda hungry but.."

"What do you want? You can have anything you want. We have some time before your uncles get here, and you know how Uncle Liam can be. 'Eat your veggies, Kal, so you can grow big and strong like me!'" She joked imitating one of her boyfriends and flexing her muscles like a bodybuilder.

"Um...McDonalds?" he asked unsurely. He knew she never felt too comfortable with leaving the house when she was "busy."

"Okay, I'll get you some McDonalds, just after I finish up here, alright?" She kissed his cheek again and moved to collect the money she dropped and moved near Kailum's bed, there were movable floorboards beneath it. She pulled out a large suitcase, unzipped it and reveled thousands upon thousands of dollars and she added to the neatly placed stacks and proceeded to transfer the money from the dufflebag.

"Aunt Leigh-Anne?" 

Once again she stopped and went to her beckoning nephew.

"What's wrong, Kal?" she wondered, her features softening into a smile.

They might not have been blood related, but he was exactly like his Uncle Zayn. Then again, Zayn was his "first" uncle, he had been there from the beginning, stepping in as a father figure while she filled in as 'mommy.' She didn't know what would've happened if Zayn wasn't there.

"This." He waved his hands at the money and pointed over at her pistol. "Will I ever be able to play with you and my uncles one day?"

Her smile withered and turned into a hard line. 

"Never. This isn't a game you should play, Kal. There's no do overs or restart, heals, no revives, nothing. I never want to see you pick up a gun or be like me or your uncles, do you understand me?" she asked raising her voice a little. "You're gonna go to college and be a doctor or a lawyer or something. This isn't a life to choose." 

"But Uncle Harry always makes me get his guns from the closet and sometimes you-"

She pinched his neck and he winced. 

"What do I always say? 'Do as I tell you, not as I do.' You know you're all I have," she murmured pulling him into a tight hug. 

"...You have my uncles.." he muttered into her shoulder while hugging her back.

"Yeah, but sometimes they suck," she chuckled. "I love you, Kal. I can't lose you..."

'Like your mother.'

"So you can't do these things. Ever."

"But Uncle Harry always has the best adventure stories when you guys come in. It seems so fun and exciting and.."

"And it's very dangerous!" She really needed to have a talk with Harry if he was convincing him that their lives were fun.

"Listen." She pulled away from his small body and looked at him dead on. "Kal, you're a good kid, and all of this, this stuff that me and your uncles do, isn't for you. You're not built for it. Your Uncle Harry might tell you how 'fun' and 'exciting' it is all the time, but I'm sure he doesn't tell you how many times Uncle Zayn and I had to stitch him up because he got hurt having too much 'fun.' All of the things you see us do, you've-"

"I've never seen you do anything and I don't know what you're talked about," he recited from having it drilled in his brain so many times by his Uncle Liam.

"Exactly..." She sighed and rubbed his head. "Put on your shoes, I'm gonna put this stuff away and we can get something to eat."

He obediently nodded and gently placed his tablet on his bed to slip on his Retro Jordan's before she pulled off a few hundred dollar bills and zipped the suitcase back up and put it back in it's hiding place. 

Her phone rang and she answered it quickly, "Hey babe, Kal and I were just about to step out for something to eat. You guys want something?"

"We're on our way home now. Harry went and-"

"Again?!" she yelled already knowing what he was going to say. She grabbed her gun and tucked it in the back of her pants and pulled her large sweater over it.

"Yeah," Zayn confirmed with a sigh on the other end. "Can you get the couch or something ready before you go? He's bleeding out pretty badly."

"F-ck," she cursed under her breath so her nephew wouldn't hear. "Yeah okay, how long til you get here?"

"Just a few minutes, maybe 15? Liam's driving and you know he's gotta drive the speed limit unless it's an emergency." Zayn rolled his eyes and continued applying more pressure to Harry's wound to stop the blood from gushing out and onto the leather seats.

"And Harry being hurt isn't a goddamn emergency?!" She yelled and turned to Kailum who stared curiously at his Aunt. "Kal, babe, go in the livingroom please."

"But I-"

"Now, Kailum!"

He nodded and quickly grabbed his tablet again and scurried out of his room, he never wanted to anger his aunt, it always scared him sh!tless whenever she was angry with on of his uncles.

"Don't yell at my nephew like that," Zayn chided.

"Tell Liam to hurry up," she demanded going into the spare bedroom and pulling out the medical supplies from the drawers. "I'll prep the room now but I want you here in five minutes, I told Kal we'd get McDonalds."

"Thanks, I'll take care of it when we get there. Go ahead and take Kal to McDonalds, just don't forget to bring us back our usuals," Zayn replied and paused to hear what Harry was saying. "Harry said he wants a large fry."

"Harry isn't getting sh!t because he's f-cking stupid!"

There was another pause before Zayn answered. 

"He says don't be like that, he'll make it up to you later since it's his night and...what? Dude, no! I'm not telling her that!" Zayn yelled. 

"Tell him he won't be able to do anything because he's cut off. Kal was telling me that Harry's been singing him lullabies at night, now he wants to 'play' with us one day," she informed knowing Zayn always felt some type of way with Kal knowing what they did.

"Oh, has he?" Zayn shot Harry a sharp look. "Stop poisoning my nephew's mind," he said pressing harder on his wound so it would hurt more.

Leigh-Anne thought she heard Harry say, "Hey! That's my nephew too!" 

"How long?" she asked double checking the supplies.

"Around the corner." 

"Alright, I'll see you guys when you get here," she said walking out the bedroom and into the livingroom with Kailum and leaving the door open.

"Love you."

"Love you too," she replied and hung up. "Wanna see your Uncle Harry before he tells you all the 'fun' adventure stories?" 

She strolled to the wall where the button was located to open the garage door, they needed to get Harry in the house quickly, plus they had a neighbor that was getting a little bit to nosy so they couldn't use the front door.

"He's not.." The boy put his hands around his throat and made a choked face. "Is he?"

Leigh-Anne snorted. "No, but he did get hurt." She looked out the window through the curtains to see them pulling in the driveway, then up in the garage.

"Oh...I thought Uncle Harry did boxing?"

"No, that was your Uncle Liam," she corrected.

"What about that underground fight club stuff?" 

"Uncle Zayn."

"Wait...So who went overseas in the military and did all of that covert sniper stuff?"

"Uncle Liam."

Kailum pouted before his face held a confused expression. 

"So what did Uncle Harry do?" he asked finally.

"Nothing much," she shrugged and going to open the back door.

Liam came in first carrying a groaning Harry towards the room and Zayn next, shaking his head, he hated stitching Harry, he was a big sh!t-talking crybaby.

"How bad is it?"

"Not too bad," he answered going over to Kailum, ready to tousle his hair until he looked at his bloodied hands. He wiped them on his black shirt and decided a bro-fist would have to do until he was done with Harry and showered. 

Leigh-Anne skipped over to Zayn, kissed his lips and threw her arms around his shoulders, his 'clean' hands giving her butt a loving squeeze, only leaving light spots of blood on her sweater.

"I feel like I have to go and fix it now." Leigh-Anne moved to grab her keys from the glass bowl beside the door and sighed, she was hoping she could stay in with the guys, watch some movies and eat junk food all night.

"I'll handle it," Zayn promised. Leigh-Anne was running her hands through her hair and he watched her fingers get stuck before she groaned and yanked on it, that always meant she was stressing out. He calmly approached her and hugged her from behind, Zayn hated seeing her stressed, she was always under some sort of pressure and if he could find someway to alleviate any of it, he would; all of them would.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna take care of it."

"But Zayn.."

Zayn held her tighter and kissed her neck. "I'm going to handle it, I'll be late coming in, but it's gonna be alright."

She nodded her head, she trusted Zayn to handle it, but there was nothing like doing it yourself. Zayn looked over to Kailum and remembered something Liam had said earlier in passing.

"Remind me when you come back to tell you what Liam said," he murmured in her ear. He kissed it quickly and could see Liam coming from the hallway in his peripheral vision, that meant he'd tried to clean Harry up to the best of his ability and atleast gave him some pain medication to numb him before Zayn got his hands on him.

"Why can't you tell me now?" she wondered turning around to face him.

"Because you're supposed to be getting my nephew McDonalds and he's been patiently waiting on you." Zayn pointed Kailum quietly sitting on the livingroom chair, occupied by his tablet, and walked over to his nephew to tell him a secret and to let Liam hug Leigh-Anne and kiss her cheek. 

"How was your day?" Liam asked kissing her other cheek.

"Good until I found out about Harry a few minutes ago." Leigh-Anne leaned in for a quick smooch and decided she'd see how Harry was doing when her and Kailum got back, if she saw him now she'd probably yammer his ear off about being careful. "And Liam, if you're driving and one of them is hurt please...please, just break the speed limit," she begged.

"I wanna see you drive 70 in a 30, in a tinted windowed truck, a passenger who's bleeding all over the backseat, with three AK's in it and not get pulled over," he huffed crossing his toned arms over his chest.

"I know, I know. But you know how I am when one of you gets hurt.." she whispered looking at Kailum when Zayn made him laugh.

_x

"Will that be all?" the female cashier, Vanessa, asked.

Leigh-Anne had wanted to use the drive-through but no, Kailum wanted to look at all of the new toys McDonalds had knowing she would buy all of them from the billion dollar franchise if he asked...which he did.

"Um...yeah, I think that's it," she answered slowly, looking over the menu.

Leigh-Anne felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down. 

"Did you get Uncle Harry's large fry?"

She snorted and let her eyes scan the other customers.

"No, he doesn't get any," she says to him.

"Please Auntie? Please?"

"I said 'no,' Kal."

He hugged her leg and continued to beg for his uncles fattening fries until she relented and had the cashier add a large fry to her already massive order of stroke including food.

"Can you make sure it's the old, nasty fries please?" she asked and accepting the strange look the cashier gave her like she hadn't seen it.

"Yeah...I can do that." Vanessa nodded and looked down at Kailum briefly. "Do you want all of his toys in a seperate bag or..?"

"Yes, please." 

"Okay. Your total is $53.62..." 

Leigh-Anne pulled a hundred from her pocket and handed it over, the girl held it up to the light and used a marker to further test it's authenticity. She rang it up started counting Leigh-Anne's change, cursing under her breath when she  dropped a dime.

"Your change is $46.38.." Leigh-Anne reached out to take the money and receipt, she put $20.38 in their charity box and handed Vanessa back the rest. 

"A tip for all the crazy orders," she said, laughing at the jaw dropped expression on the girls face. Leigh-Anne was just going to assume nobody ever tipped the cashiers at McDonalds, especially so much. 

"Uh..thanks.." Vanessa looked around at her co-workers, exchanging looks of 'Do you see this?' and 'Did she just tipped you?"

"Man, what the f-ck? Next time she comes in, I'm taking her order!" one of the cooks yelled from his position on the grill. "And she's cold!"

Leigh-Anne smirked to herself and felt Kailum considerably smaller hand slide into hers.

"Um.." Vanessa pocketed the money quickly feeling lucky and very awkward with other hungry customers watching her. "Can I help who's next?"

Leigh-Anne moved out of the way and had a seat in a chair nearest the counter and texted Zayn that they'd be back in a bit and asked how Harry was. 

'He's being a whiny b!tch,' Zayn texted back and she chuckled. That was about right.

'C'mon, you should've known he would be!'

'He can't feel a damn thing and he's still crying like it hurts!'

"Auntie..."

She put her phone on the table after she deemed it clean enough and looked at Kailum.

"Yeah?"

He slowly lifted a finger towards the drive-through. "That guy keeps looking at you.."

She turned in her swiveling chair and narrowed her eyes at the driver, it just the person she didn't want or even need to see right now. She picked up her phone again and texted Zayn who she saw, where, and if Liam could break the speed limit to get there. If she'd gone alone she could do it but Kailum...

"No pointing, it's rude." She lightly slapped his hand down. "And he's a creep." She stood up, blocking her nephew from the mans view first, and then moving herself closer to the counter.

"I think Uncle Zayn could beat him up.."

She laughed at that in agreement, Zayn looked scrawny but that was the pretense he wanted to have so everyone would underestimate him.

"He sure could, even Uncle Harry could beat him up!"

"Really?"

She laughed even harder at that and ignored the annoyed looks she was getting.

"I think your Uncle Harry would give him a run for his money," she answered accepting one of the bags Vanessa slid over to her with an awkward smile and digging into the bag to check it. "Your Uncle Harry isn't much of a fighter but he has his ways."

"Huh?"

"He's resourceful," she said.

'What's that supposed to mean?'   
Kailum asked himself, his head tilted in confusion. 'Resourceful' wasn't a word his Uncle Zayn had taught him yet, but Kailum nodded as if he understood.

Vanessa called out the rest of Leigh-Anne's order and slid over Kailum's toys too. This was the biggest order she'd ever taken, and she hoped she had gotten everything right, she didn't want Leigh-Anne to take her tip back; she had a cellphone bill to pay.

"Kal, hold this bag for me?" she requested handing it to him. "Is it too heavy? Wait, no, hold your toys, that bag is lighter," she said trying to trade bags with him.

"I've got it, it's not too heavy," he commented, following her out of the door and into the parking lot.

"Really? Who told you that you had muscles, huh?" she joked, looking over her shoulder and out the window where that guy was staring at her. Zayn hadn't texted her back and she wasn't going to wait for Liam either.

"Uncle Liam," he replied. "Sometimes he let's me workout with him..."

"Does he?" she asked, pretty shocked considering Liam trained all the time. There were times he had passed out in their basement from exhaustion and on rare occasions, dehydration. He pushed his body to the limit, sometimes passed it, and was the sole reason why it seemed like they never had any ice in the house; him and his constant ice baths. Liam's workout regimen was extreme as it could be, though she didn't complain much when him and all of his Adonis likeness strutted around their bedroom naked. (The workouts paid off immensely.) She almost snorted thinking back to the times he wanted her to workout with him, after the first hour she could barely move and he had to carry her.

"Yeah, but like, not how he does, cause he gets really sweaty," Kailum added, politely holding the door open for an elderly man rushing to get his coffee, no doubt. 

He did a few push ups, situps, and then jump roped before walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes.

"I would hope not, that's too much for your body. I still don't see how he does it!" Leigh-Anne laughed to herself unlocking the doors of their truck remotely and heading towards it. "I guess that's what the service does to you."

"When I get older, I'll be able to keep up with him...but for now, I'd rather play video games with Uncle Harry."

"I couldn't agree more...Hey, Manny? Can you sit it the back?" she asked nicely, not completely positive if that creep was going to be following them.

"But I-"

"Kailum," she said sternly with a too large smile on her face that he had learned not to question.

"Yes, ma'am," he muttered climbing in the back.

"Thank you," she replied getting in the drivers seat. Automatically she looked in the rearview mirror to check for Kailum seatbelt. Feeling satisfied after hearing the click, she put her own seatbelt on and started the car.

_x

"Where is he?" Leigh-Anne asked Zayn when she and Kailum walked in the house.

"Basement," Zayn said tiredly. Harry had started running a fever and was complaining a lot more than usual. So listening to him nag and trying to reduce his fever had taken a toll, he wanted to take a quick nap after he ate and before he left out tonight.

"Did you tell him?" she asked handing him all of his food, kissing his tired cheek and seeing Kailum have a seat in fronting the tv with his food and toys.

"Yep. Completely ignored me though," Zayn said back, returning her kiss.

Leigh-Anne groaned. What if things had gotten serious with Kal in the truck with her?

"When are you leaving out?" she asked gathering the bags in her hands.

"Around ten I guess." Zayn shrugged.

"Oh...wanna take a shower with me before you go?" she asked seductively, biting her lip and fluttering her lashes.

Zayn smirked and shook his head. "Can't, it's not my night."

"So?" she snorted. It's not like he could do anything in his current state besides rest.

"So I can't," he replied smiling.

"Whatever," she said rolling her eyes. "Before I go down there, what did Liam say to you earlier?"

"I've decided to let him tell you. I don't think he'd like me gossiping." Zayn yawned into his hand and made himself comfortable on the couch, he wasn't going to get in the middle of that situation.

"Alright." She shrugged and walked into the basement only to find Liam drenched in sweat and doing situps at a rapid pace.   
"I've got food," she announced.

Liam kept at his rigorous workout and huffing. Leigh-Anne had a seat on the bench press, set the food down beside to her and watched. 

"Liam?" she asked. He was obviously somewhere she couldn't reach him through just calling his name so she carefully reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Li?"

He slowed down and came to a stop after a few seconds, whenever he got into that zone nothing else really seemed to register.

"Huh?" he asked bewildered, grabbing the towel beside him and wiping his face, chest and arms free from sweat. "What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I was just bringing you your food, that's all..." She gestured to the bag. "Are they back?" she asked in a whisper.

Liam hesitated for a moment, he didn't like talking about it, he always felt like he was crazy when he tried explaining it to people. Leigh-Anne was the first person who didn't think he was insane and needed to be institutionalized though and he loved her for it, she had helped him get over a lot of things and he was greatful.

"Yeah," he admitted quietly. "I couldn't sleep last night.."

"I know you don't like talking about it, but you know I'll always listen, Liam," she replied softly. Seeing that he wasn't going to get up and prefered sitting on the floor, she grabbed his food and moved to sit next to him. 

Liam let her lean on his slightly sticky arm and scoot close enough so he didn't have to speak at his normal volume. 

"Whenever you're ready," she instructed, digging in his bag for some fries. "If you're ready.."

"It's nothing I haven't already told you, Leigh. It's all the same and I.." Liam grunted and made a face. "It's something I have to live with."

"Yeah, and we live together," she said stating the obvious. "You, me, Zayn, Harry and Kal. So if you have to live with it, so do we. And I know that Zayn and Harry don't really get it and that upsets you, but I've been trying to get them to understand and they're trying their hardest."

"Leigh, no. I don't want them to," he muttered.

"Why not? It's better when all of us are on the same page..."

Liam didn't want to admit that he selfishly enjoyed having her as the only one he could confide in about this. 

"We're a family, we've been a family and we'll always be a family, nothing will ever change that, Liam. All of us love you and you know that. Plus it's perfectly normal.." Leigh-Anne patted his leg, it wasn't his fault and these things were expected.

"A family, huh?" Liam asked and chuckled. 

She elbowed him sharply, if she didn't think they were a family she wouldn't have said it. "Yes, a family. I know we aren't exactly a conventional family, but so what?" Their loyalty to one another made them more of a family than people bound by blood.

So yeah, conventional definitely wasn't the word to describe what they had going on. It was always difficult explaining to people that she was Kal's aunt and that Zayn, Harry and Liam were all of his uncles. First look would lead a person to assume she and Zayn were Kal's parents, and Liam and Harry were like Zayn's brothers, which would make them like Kal's uncles; it made sense. However that wasn't so. Sure, she and Zayn had raised Kal together as a couple for the majority of his young life, but as time went on, Liam and Harry came along and it didn't change too much; Kal just had two more uncles that loved him. But the story on how those two got mixed up into this was a tale of its own -we'll get to that later though.

For now, this one ideal vision had been floating around Liam's head. Today was the first time he'd ever said anything about his epiphany and according to Zayn's reaction, he felt like it was a now or never kinda thing.

"Leigh?" 

She hummed and looked over to him, mouth full of his food. He wouldn't be too upset, he was more of a Whopper kinda guy anyways.

"I was thinking and..." Liam turned to her and made sure he looked her straight in the eyes. "I want a baby."

And that was all it took to send the food in Leigh-Anne's mouth flying out of it.  
___xx


	2. Duex

That was exactly the reaction Liam had feared she'd have. It was also exactly the reaction Zayn predicted she would have.

"Liam, we all agreed," she hissed standing up from her place next to him and ready to leave the basement. Having kids was a sensitive subject with her and all three of them knew it. "I can't believe you even said that."

"Leigh, please don't start overreacting," Liam said rolling his eyes at her. The subject was going to come up eventually and she wouldn't be able to run away from it any longer.

"Dammit, I am not overreacting, Liam!" she snapped. "Kailum is enough to handle as it is and you're saying that you want me to carry a child for nine months and then give birth, too?" Really? When they were in the middle of all of this shit?

"Kailum is fine, Leigh. I've never seen such a high functioning kid his age," Liam told her as he stood up to grab her and pull her into a hug. "And I love that kid, you know I do..."

"But? Because I know it's coming."

"But it's not the same as having a child of your own. Kal's your nephew, not your son, or Zayn's, Harry's, or mine. We don't love him any differently of course, but don't you want a little piece of you to raise and love?" Liam asked holding her tighter when she tried breaking free.

"No, Kal is a piece of me."

"But he's not of piece of us, Zayn, Harry and myself," Liam replied softly, hoping she would see his point.

Leigh-Anne scoffed and struggled against him more. "What are you really saying then? That because you don't have a child of your own, you won't look at Kailum as your son?"

Liam frowned. "Don't start putting words my mouth, Leigh-Anne," he reprimanded. "You know damn well that I love that boy like there's no fucking tomorrow. I'm just saying that he calls me Uncle for a reason and I'd like to be called Daddy some day soon.."

"Oh, Harry not doing it for you anymore?" she sneered and Liam rolled his eyes again. "Kailum calls all of you Uncle and you're the only one that wants to make it an issue. You should've said that it bothered you years ago, Liam! I would've let you walk if you weren't okay with it!"

Liam sighed. "You're missing the point. It doesn't bother me that Kal calls me Uncle, not at all. I just want a piece of you and a piece of me here. I want a child with you, Leigh."

"No, you're missing the point! The four of us agreed that we wouldn't have children because it would be easier that way, and if there ever came a time for having one, -which right now definitely wasn't- Zayn would be first," she said reminding him of their promise.

"But Zayn doesn't want kids right now, he's content with raising Kailum as his own and leaving it at that," Liam said shaking his head. He wanted to argue that Zayn being first was a bit unfair, Zayn always came first. Liam came in the picture years after Zayn and the order they had set, if they were to start having children, was in chronological order of how their foursome formed.

"If Zayn's content, then why aren't you?!" she yelled.

"Because Zayn's been there for Kal since he was a month old! Kailum is as close to having a child as Zayn wants!" Liam yelled back. Fuck, he hated when she started yelling at him. There was something about it that just got under his skin and made him start to see red. "Kal was four when I came along. He could already talk, walk, he had missing teeth, he could use the bathroom by himself and even tie his shoes!"

Liam let her go thinking that if he started getting angry, he would accidentally fracture a rib or two of hers and he was trying to avoid all bodily harm being done to anyone. He covered his face with his hand, sighed into it and kept it there to try and regain his composure.

"What if shit goes haywire and something happens to me?"

"Nothing's going to happen to you Liam," Leigh-Anne told him immediately. Liam was always paranoid about something happening to her and him and constantly needed reassurance that they would be fine. And if anything was going to happen, it would be her trying to kill him again.

This conversation was a losing fight that he should have never started, Leigh-Anne didn't get it and she was so stubborn that she didn't want to get it.

"Honestly, is it so wrong for me to want a child of my own to have those firsts with?" Liam asked pulling his hand away from his face. He looked at her anticipating her answer if she ever decided to give him one. On many occasions Leigh-Anne would just walk away without answering a question because she didn't want to, she felt like her answer was obvious, or that her answer would only make things worse.

It didn't take her long to come up with a response, though she still hesitated saying it aloud. It was unfair, it was a bit selfish, but she wasn't going to change her mind about the matter.

"Yes," she answered coldly, her eyes cold as well. Then she turned away from him and ascended the stairs, leaving Liam there by himself.

_x

"Damn," Leigh-Anne whispered as she inspected Harry's wounds. Zayn had done a mighty fine job fixing him up, she only wondered how long it would take for him to completely heal and when he would get his new scar covered with a tattoo like the rest of them. And until he was healed, he would be out of commission...which he dispised and loved at the same time. It burned him being away from the "action" yet he enjoyed lazing around the house in his boxers while he played video games with Kailum.

"How the hell did you manage to get shot and stabbed, Harry?" she asked his unconscious body as it laid unresponsive. If it weren't for his slow, deep breaths and a low grunt or whine, she would've thought he was dead. (And it made her sick to even think that.)

Harry was an idiot, and although their crew was built very well, Harry always got stiffed. He was always the one getting hurt the most. She blamed herself for all of his injuries and whenever she cried over them, Harry would still hold her and tell her it wasn't her fault, that it was his inexperience that was to blame. Then he would promise to be more careful the next time and do something to make her smile.

"I should've let him go..." she said shaking her head. She was doubtful about letting Harry in, and against her better judgement, she did it anyway. She already had Zayn and Liam, she didn't need another person to fuss and cry over and she was extra skeptical about bringing another person into Kailum's life. It was just too tempting not to keep him around, Harry also had his own skill set that, and made him valuable.

She smirked to herself and brushed some of his hair from his face before wiping his sweating forehead. She recalled pitching the idea to Zayn and Liam and talking up how much they could use Harry in their little gang. The two were so against the idea of bringing another person along that it was comical, especially another male vying for her love and attention. (Zayn suggested that if she wanted to recruit someone, it should be a female so whenever she was busy with one of them, the other always had a backup.) Though they gave her plenty of valid reasons why Harry wouldn't be good, she didn't care, she still wanted him there.

Zayn hadn't put up much of a fight when she suggested letting Liam tag along. Of course he didn't like it, he hated it, but he was willing to accept Liam into their lives if that was what Leigh-Anne wanted. Harry, however, was a different story. Neither Zayn or Liam trusted him from the start and were always leery of his actions. She actually came home one day to see Harry tied to a chair, unharmed because Zayn and Liam knew she would flip, and being interrogated. And Harry, always the charmer, took it all in stride with a grin on his face.

"But you know I love your stupid ass," she mumbled looking at his other scars that were hidden beneath his ink stained skin. She loved all three of them and would never, and could never admit to loving one of them more than the other. Regardless of Zayn and Liam's protests, they could see how she could love Harry; they loved him too. For what one of them lacked, another made up for it and together, they were cohesive.

She sighed and let her eyes rake over the rest of his body. He was shirtless and in a pair of sweatpants she assumed Liam changed him into before Zayn got to him. Zayn had his left shoulder wrapped up like a mummy and in a sling while there was gauze taped on his side and down near his hipbone. It looked like she would be changing those soon. She prayed that he wasn't having any internal bleeding, the stab wound was right were his kidney was located.

"Wake up, Dummy," she said to him. She hadn't seen him since he and the guys left out early this morning. They cooked breakfast together and she sat on his lap and let him feed her. The entire time she kept warning him to keep his mouth shut, stick to the plan and follow Liam's lead. He said he would, but Harry said a lot of things. It's not like she bitched him out for the fun of it, she did it out of genuine concern for him. Zayn and Liam didn't need to be told to be careful, this was right up their alley while Harry was constantly showing how much of a greenhorn he was at this.

"Fuck," she swore closing her eyes shut to stop the tears she felt ready to spring from them. "It's all my fault," she whispered, rubbing her eyes and sniffling, her body bent over.

She couldn't live with herself if something happened to one of them, and judging by his track record, sooner or later, it would be Harry. Liam was worried it would be him when it was obviously going to be the youngest of them.

"It's hard trying to rest when you're insulting me and crying," Harry groaned opening his eyes and looking at his girlfriend with nothing but love.

Leigh-Anne lifted her head and cracked a tearful smile at her youngest boyfriend.

"Stop being such an idiot and I won't have to," she told him reaching for his hand. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Well," Harry said attempting to raise his injured arm and wincing in pain, his face scrunched together. "I'm kinda fucked up," he chuckled relaxing his features. "But I'm alive, so I'm alright."

Leigh-Anne stared at him and gave a quiet, dry laugh. "You're so fucking stupid, I think I'm going to kill you myself."

"Can you wait until my night is over? Cause I'm still up for some hot hanky panky," he said grinning from ear to ear.

She snorted humorously. "How's that gonna work with these wounds?" she asked ghosting her fingers over the one near his hipbone. Instinctively, Harry thrusted his hips forward and he grunted in pain. "See?" she tutted.

"We'll figure something out," he insisted, determined not to miss his night.

"Really?" she asked sarcastically. "Cause all of your favorite positions are pretty strenuous, Harry."

A naughty smirk formed on his lips like an inside joke that he was trying not to laugh at. "All but one..."

It took a second for Leigh-Anne to catch his drift, and when she did, she pinched his leg. "I only do that for the ones that listen when I tell them to be careful," she hissed.

"Hey, it wasn't even my fault this time. Liam was too distracted to lead and-"

"And you took it upon yourself to lead with the foot that's always in your mouth?" she wondered not expecting an answer.

But she got one with a free eye roll included. "The only foot that's always in my mouth is yours."

"Or Zayn's..." she said with a mischievous grin of her own. Harry had taken a big liking to Zayn when he was finally able to participate in their "play time."

Harry's eyes narrowed at her. "That was once."

Leigh-Anne laughed and watched Harry pout. It might've been once, but if Zayn was willing to let Harry try it again, the latter would jump at the chance.

"How long have I been out?" Harry asked looking out the window. The sun would be setting in a few hours if he was correct.

"Three hours," she told him, checking her phone. "I ate your food by the way, and I'm gonna give you another shot of pain meds before I leave to check on Kailum." She rummaged through the closest drawer to find a needle and a narcotic that would ease his pain. He shouldn't have felt anything, but she concluded that the fever he had was wearing down the effects of it.

"Damn, I was really looking forward to those fries," he sighed. "And Kailum will be fine, Leigh. You should stay with me instead of trying to put me to sleep," he said watching her fill up the needle. He gulped nervously, regardless of his numerous tattoos, needles were never his favorite pointy object. "That reminds me. Can you tell Zayn to be a bit gentler with that thing? I felt like he was trying to kill me."

"He probably was," she replied causally and shrugging nonchalantly. "You've gotta stop talking to Kailum about our work, Harry."

She held the needle near his skin and saw him flinch.

"If Kal wants to know, I think he should," Harry argued and flinched again when she actually pierced his flesh. "I don't want to keep lying to him about it."

After injecting all of the medication she removed the needle and looked at Harry sternly. "It's not your call to make, Harry."

"It's not?" he wondered challenging her. "Cause I'm pretty sure we're all raising him together. If I feel like he should know, then I'm going to tell him."

"That's something you should've discussed with the rest of us first!" she snapped. "I don't like it and Zayn doesn't like it either." She hadn't had a chance to ask Liam how he felt about it, which was probably the same way that she did.

Harry scoffed. "It's better that he knows now instead of believing that we're all saints for the rest of his life, Leigh."

"He doesn't think we're saints," she corrected. "But you and your damn adventure time stories are piquing his curiousity and I swear to God I'll cut your balls off and cut your throat open so I can shove them in there if he tells me how fun it seems doing what we do."

Harry sighed dreamily and gave her a lopsided grin, the effects seeming to kick in sooner than she thought.

"Ooh, Baby. I love it when you talk dirty to me," he said with a cheeky smile.

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest and stood up heading towards the door. "I'll see you in a few hours, Harry."

"Babe, don't leave me!" he begged pitifully, struggling to sit up. He didn't have the strength to move and found that his motors kills and been reduced to that of a newborn baby. "Oh fuck," he mumbled, giving up and instead trying to keep his eyes open as he started to fade into unconsciousness again. "I hate this shit.."

Leigh-Anne giggled in her hand. He should be used to it considering how often his was in their makeshift infirmary.

"Love you, Harry," she said in a laugh.

"If you loved me you'd stop drugging me and having your way with me," he replied drowsily. "I'd gladly volunteer my dick for anything involving your mouth and or, vagina."

"Well, I don't love you that much," she said still laughing and closing the door behind her.

Harry used his free hand to pat where he knew his junk would be even though he couldn't feel it. "Motherfucka never loved us," he joked, closing his eyes but keeping his hand there still petting himself.

_x

Curled up on the couch sat Zayn and Leigh-Anne under a blanket, the lights were dimmed and the TV was playing Love & Hip Hop Atlanta. Zayn didn't see the point in it, but Leigh-Anne said that it was so she could get her dose of ratchetness. Zayn had sent Kailum to bed after they'd watched cartoons together and had some time to paint; Kailum was quite the painter* as he took after Zayn's artistic prowess.

"Are you sure you don't want me to do it?" she asked biting her lip and looking up at him. "I'll come with you if you want."

"Leigh, I'm sure." Zayn nodded, looking down at her. "I've got this, alright?"

"I know you do, I'm just saying-"

"Dammit, Leigh, just shut the hell up," he said. It wasn't in a harsh way, he'd said it so many times before that it was affectionately humorous now. "You can hold down the fort and I'll be back before you know it. Calm down," he told her.

"Zayn, I can't! I fucking can't!" she said lowly. "I'm fucking stressed, okay?"

He sighed and held fast to her body before she choose to run away. "Exactly, and that's why I'm taking care of it. You're gonna stay here and try to relax."

"No! I can't fucking relax when-" Zayn's hand went to cover her mouth.

"Don't even speak that shit into existance," he demanded in a mumble. "I'm gonna run you a hot bath and make you some tea before I leave." Which would be in 30 minutes according to the time on his watch.

She nodded and hand left her mouth and went to her jaw to bring her closer to his face, his eyes flickering between the two of hers. "I'm not going to tell you again to calm down. But what I am going to do is kiss you before I take a shower."

He gently pressed his lips to hers and started to massage his lips against hers before pressing his tongue into her mouth. She moaned and climbed on his lap, grabbing his shirt and tugging on it.

"Let me shower with you," she said between their kisses.

"Can't," he replied cupping her behind and squeezing it roughly through the thick material. "Tomorrow."

"Tonight," she insisted, fisting the hair at the back of his head. "Now."

Zayn grunted. She knew how much he liked his hair being pulled.

"Tomorrow," he repeated lifting her from his lap and dropping her next to him again. "It's Harry's night," he reminded her.

Leigh-Anne huffed in disappointment. "It wouldn't be the first time I've had one of you on some else's day."

"Yeah, but I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you were in there reading a book to him instead of hanging off a shower rod with me," he told her standing up and stretching. "I'm gonna start your bath."

_x

"You came back!" Harry said happily. "I thought you'd spend the night with Liam since I'm all banged up and Zayn's gonna be out."

"He just left and I'm upset with Liam," she replied quietly, setting down the cup of tea Zayn made for Harry. "What book did you want me to start reading tonight? We didn't finish that one Nicholas Sparks one because you started crying.."

"For the last time, I wasn't crying!"

"That's right, how could I forget? Your eyes were just watering from your developing vagina," she said rolling her eyes with a smile.

"Precisely. Now get in here," he said doing his best to slide over to make room for her. "Kal came to visit me...I think it's safe to say he doesn't want to hear anymore adventure time stories from me."

"Good." She shook her head at his sad attempts and gently pushed him over before grabbing the book from the dresser. "And since you can't leave the house, it looks like you'll be babysitting."

"You're seriously gonna leave Kal in the house with me like this?" he asked lifting his arm, luckily he still couldn't feel it.

"Yep, cause I need to get out of the house before I lose my mind," she told him opening the thick novel to the bookmarked page. "Liam said he wants to have a baby," she added, scanning the paragraphs to find where she had left off.

"He mentioned it earlier but I didn't think he was serious," Harry said leaning his head on hers. "Don't be upset with him, Leigh. He's lost a lot."

"We've all lost a lot, Harry," she muttered under her breath. "We don't have time for a baby...unless you're willing to have one for him?"

"From my developing vagina?" he joked.

"Where else?" She kissed his cheek and found their place. "Now hush so I can start reading."'


	3. Trois

"- and I swear to God he started crying again!" she explained in a laugh.

"Leigh, be nice! Remember, Harry's the one who likes Cabaret," her friend told her over the phone and giggled herself.

"Something is seriously wrong with the guy!" Leigh-Anne griped. "I mean, yeah it was a great book but, c'mon, even I didn't cry and I'm a sap for anything romantic."

"Okay, you've got a point," her friend said in defeat, still laughing. "How are Zayn and Liam?"

"Zayn is Zayn, as always, and Liam I'm mad at. That's why I called and asked what you were doing. I swear I can't be in the house with Harry whining and Liam doing that thing he does when he's trying to show you that he's not hurt when you know he is but he's trying so hard to make it seem like everything is just fine with him." She stopped to groan. "We can talk about it later if I can get you to agree to go to the mall with me? I'll even buy you something from that one store you like..?" she bribed.

"That's not fair," her friend scolded. "You're never mad at Zayn, Harry's always whinny and Liam probably has a good reason for whatever he did and you're just upset that he does."

"So you don't want anything from your favorite store, Jade?" Leigh-Anne asked ignoring her friends guilt trip.

Jade had always liked Liam in a romantic way, and with that biased Jade would always defend Liam whenever she felt like Leigh-Anne was being unfair to him. Normally a person would be a little worried about having their friend or lover in the presence of the other when there was an attraction going on, but not Leigh-Anne. She knew Liam would never when he had no one besides their family and that he didn't feel anything towards Jade; if anything he looked at Jade as a cousin. Then there was Jade, and Leigh-Anne trusted her enough to know that Jade would never even try to do anything about her feelings for Liam...and hidden under that trust, if Jade ever tried, Leigh-Anne would kill her.

"Don't make me go shopping by myself, Jade. I need a girls day," Leigh-Anne pleaded.

"Leigh, that's not fair. You know I love going shopping and that I can't say no when you say you'll buy me something," Jade moaned. Leigh-Anne would always get the most expensive thing Jade wanted but couldn't afford and said Jade didn't have to pay her back, it was always a gift.

"So is that a yes?" Leigh-Anne asked knowing the answer. "And you already said you're free so.."

Jade muttered something under her breath. "Are you picking me up?"

"You know I will," Leigh-Ane replied with a smirk. "I'll be around in a hour, okay? Alright, bye," she told her and hung up.

"Auntie?" Kailum asked from his position on the bench, Leigh-Anne hummed in acknowledgment. "Am I done?"

Leigh-Anne shook her head. "One more time and watch your rests. Feel it," she instructed.

Obediently and on her count, he started playing the melody she had composed. His small fingers were pressing the keys gently, letting the notes come alive under his fingertips, Leigh-Anne nodding approvingly sitting ontop of the piano. Kailum read the notes and let his fingers translate them into a lilt rhythm, making her proud of all of his hardwork. This was the most complex piece she had forged for him so far, it took her three days to come up with that masterpiece. She and Zayn were convinced that Kailum was a little artist prodigy.

The door to the room they were occupying opened and Leigh-Anne thought she heard some hesitation from Kailum. "Don't stop playing, Kal. You're doing great," she told him, her eyes turning towards the intruder, her ears hearing Kailum keep up the steady pace. "Why are you out of bed?"

"Damn, not even a good morning?" Harry asked shaking his head at his girlfriend. "Do you know how hard it was for me to get up and try to find you?"

"Good morning, Uncle Harry," Kailum mumbled trying not to break his concentration. His aunt choose to make this piece difficult and he needed to focus harder on his coordination before he messed up.

"Morning, Kal," Harry greeted happily, his eyes turning to the boy. He was standing with the assistance of a crutch, his hair still tied into the sloppy ponytail she had put it in last night when he started to break into another fever, his wounds still bandaged up.

"No one told you to get up," she quipped watching him limp over to her on the piano. Harry shouldn't even be up and moving, he must be feeling extremely well if he had enough energy to do so. "I would've checked up on you after Kal's lesson." To see what his pain level was at and drug him again.

"Yeah, but I'm hungry now," Harry began to whine. "I woke up starving because someone ate my food and didn't let me have a midnight snack," he accused, leaning his forehead against hers. "Feed me," he pleaded to her sadly.

"Ask Liam to feed you, he's the master chef in this family," she told him, hugging her wounded boyfriend close enough to kiss his forehead, and hearing Kal wrap up the end of the composition. "Very good, Kal. We're done for today."

"Dude, you're amazing!" Harry said pulling away from Leigh-Anne to turn to Kailum.

Kailum smiled shyly at his uncle. "Thanks," he replied softly before looking at his aunt. "Can Uncle Harry and I play video games, now?"

"Yes!"

"No, it's still too early for video games," she told him with a straight face and Harry gasped.

"Leigh, it's summer vacation, there's no such thing as too early for video games," Harry argued.

"He just practiced the piano, give his hands a break," she exclaimed hopping off said instrument. "Didn't you just say that you were hungry? Let's have breakfast first and then when I leave you guys can play?" she negotiated easily.

Harry moved closer to Kailum to whisper in his ear and bend over as much as he could without popping his stitches. Kailum listened intently and nodded before cupping his hands together and whispering back to Harry what he thought. Harry's receiving ear liked what it heard and he grinned devilishly.

"Alright," Harry told his business partner. "Here's the deal: we play video games while you make breakfast and when you leave, we continue playing? Deal?"

Leigh-Anne smiled. "If that's what you want, then the two of you will be eating cereal this morning," she singsonged, whistling on her way out of the door and down the hall.

Harry and Kailum exchanged looks, trying to communicate their thoughts on having cereal instead, and silently asking if the other minded, what types of cereal they had, and if bacon can be added to the deal.

"Auntie!" Kailum called out following after her since he was obviously the faster one of out him and his injured uncle. "Um.." he said when she stopped and turned around. "How about Uncle Harry sets up the game, I'll take a shower and get dressed while you make breakfast?" Kailum asked timidly.

Biting her lip in thought she hummed. Harry did need to sit his injured ass down somewhere, and having Kailum clean and dressed helped her out if she decided she wanted to take him somewhere today. If he didn't put on clothes before she left, under Harry's direction, he wouldn't be getting dressed until she was on her way back. Overall, she would benefit. Harry wouldn't be moving and Kailum would be clean. Zayn hadn't come back yet and she hadn't seen Liam all morning so far, those two would atleast make sure Kailum was dressed but in their absence Harry was known for just letting Kal do whatever he wanted. If that meant not showerung and getting dressed, that's what Kailum would do and then later regret it when he was told he had to stay home with Harry for being lazy and unprepared to leave out the house for anything fun.

"Deal," she said shaking his hand and heading back to their music room where Harry was still standing. "C'mon, cripple," she teased, gently pulling him out of the room. "You're lucky Kal's such a good businessman," she told him.

"He's learned from the best," Harry boasted. (If he had on a collar that thang would've been popped.)

"Yep. Me," she replied helping him down the stairs.

"You? No, I'm definitely the better negotiator," Harry scoffed.

"Did you negotiate those stab wounds and bullet holes, too?" was her snarky remark to that nonsense Harry was spewing.

"Of course I did," he said sarcastically. "I use them as my excuse to get more meaningless tattoos."

"Clearly," she responded under her breath. "I can't wait to see what you get to cover up this one," she said skimming her hand over his hip.

A knowing smile spread on Harry's face. "I know exactly what I want to get there."

"Do you? That was fast.." Normally he just went to the shop and told the tattoo artist to pick the first thing they could think of if he didn't already have anything preplanned.

"Yeah. Let's just say I want to branch out a little with my tattoos," he hinted to her, sighing when she carefully helped him sit down infront of their TV and game system.

"Harry, I swear to God if you get an apple tree I'm breaking up with you," she threatened glaring at him.

_x

"Okay, now tell me why you're mad at Liam," Jade demanded as they took a seat in the crowded food court. Somehow Leigh-Anne had managed to snag a table after staring down a flock of teenagers. "I'm sure you're just overreacting."

"I'm overreacting?" Leigh-Anne scoffed sliding into her chair. Why did everybody want to call her completely reasonable reaction, overreacting? "Liam wants to have a baby."

"He does?" Jade wondered. "How would that even work when..?" she trailed off. Jade knew they had a "freaky foursome" going on, and still didn't understand how Leigh-Anne was dexterous enough to get three attractive guys that were alright with sharing her. But whatever her friend did, she wanted the secrets to it.

"It wouldn't. I can't focus on having a baby when I already have three and a half of them in the house," she explained.

"A half? Who's the half?"

"Kailum. He obviously the most mature male in our house," she replied as if it was obvious. Jade should've known that she was living in a house full of man-children, they wanted to behave as kids and be treated like adults.

"More so than Liam?"

"You've never seen him in a comic book store." She had never seen a grown man giggle over picture books before and it was embarrassing standing next to him until they had checked out.

"Zayn?"

"You've never seen him when he's having a marathon of his favorite cartoons." He would talk to the characters as if he was right there with them and shush her whenever she said something to him.

"Harry?"

"Three words: Video. Game. Addict." Whenever his friend Niall came by to visit, the two of them would sit and play video games for hours on end.

"But Kailum -"

"Takes directions well. He listens and does as he's told," she answered surely.

"But he's a kid, he's supposed to. Liam, Harry and Zayn are grown men, you can't expect them to do everything you tell them to," Jade argued.

Leigh-Anne gave her a 'wanna bet' look. "If I still have to tell them to pick up their boxers -especially when I haven't taken them off- then they're not docile enough."

"That's just how men are, Leigh," Jade replied. "But Liam's pretty mature, I'm sure you guys could do the baby thing..."

"We probably could, but we're not," Leigh-Anne asked side-eyeing her friend. Jade seemed more inquisitive than normal and Leigh-Anne didn't like that, it seemed more like Jade was trying to pry instead of asking to add fodder to their conversation.

"Why not? Would Zayn and Harry be upset?" Jade wondered.

"I don't think so. But baby's are so time consuming and it's already crowded."

Three men and one boy. The toilet seat in one of their bathrooms always stayed up, the showers were always occupied when she wanted or needed one and the only things that played on the TV were sports, cartoons, video games, and the news. Unless she had control of the remote, which she rarely did, it would be when everyone was asleep so she could catch up on everything she had recorded and saved.

"I thought you guys were going to move?" Jade remembered her saying they were thinking about moving a few cities over if not, an entire state.

"We were but we decided not to." There was a little situation that came up and they felt like relocating would be their best bet. Surprisingly enough, Harry got them out of that one. "Zayn and I know what it's like not being able to sleep at night because the baby won't stop crying, Liam doesn't. And being pregnant for nine months? That's too many doctors appointments and no sex for two months after the delivery," she ranted. "Plus I'd probably have to get vaginal repairs since Liam's head is so damn big..."

See now, if Liam had suggested a surrogate, maybe, just maybe, she would consider it. That way she would be free to do as she pleased seeing how she wouldn't be tied down with by a growing fetus. Caring for the baby after it arrived would be a bridge they crossed when they came to it.

"Liam's head isn't big," Jade defended. "But if you guys did have a baby, what would they call Zayn and Harry?" Would they decide that having the child call the three of them 'Dad' would be awkward? Or would they agree that Uncle Zayn and Harry worked better?

"Probably just Zayn and Harry," Leigh-Anne answered honestly. "They wouldn't be related so I don't know how Liam would feel about the baby calling them uncle, he might not care, and I know Liam would want to be known solely as their father."

She and Zayn had talked about this a few months after Liam was allowed into bed with them. A baby made things complicated, and raising Kailum in a house that participated in polygamy was hard enough and he called them all uncle.

"Ready to finish the second half?" Leigh-Anne asked standing up to stretch a little.

"Yeah...So what if it was Zayn that wanted to have a baby? Would you be upset with him?" Jade just knew Leigh-Anne showed favoritism in her relationship. There was no way she didn't when there was three different men with three different personalities at her beck and call. Leigh-Anne had to prefer one of them over the rest.

"Yep," Leigh-Anne said curtly.

"What about Harry?"

"Yep," Leigh-Anne repeated monosyllabically. She was done with talking about it and was now convinced that besides being nosy, Jade was trying to prove some facile point.

Leigh-Anne felt like she treated all of her boyfriend's the same. When she was upset with one of them, she was upset. She would vent through shopping, or pout around the house until she was over it and makeup sex unused.

She was rarely at odds with Zayn because he knew her longer and could damn near read her mind and predict her responses. If it even felt like some variance would occur Zayn would stop and contemplate his next set of words or moves around her. Zayn was the pensive type, if he couldn't think a desicion through to the end and didn't come up outcomes that he was okay with, he wouldn't follow though with acting on whatever notions he had.

Harry would do things to purposely annoy her but he knew how to tightrope around actually pissing her off. Being the smooth talking little shit that he was, he could get his point across without saying or doing anything that would cause her to react in a volatile way. Harry's vocabulary was the equivalent to a thesaurus and yet Harry was a cretin.

When it came to Liam, he probably could use more tact; he was just too blunt. Then again, when you're a hostage that's a millisecond away from getting shot in the face, there wasn't time to use flowery words what would persuade your would-be executioner not to pull the trigger on you. So because of this developed brusqueness, Liam was straightforward with everything he wanted and felt. Harry was helping Liam polish up his vocabulary when it came to being sensitive and talking to women...namely Leigh-Anne.

"I wanna buy something from Fredrick's for tonight," Leigh-Anne told the petite woman beside her and journeying in the direction of that specific store. "I haven't worn anything new in awhile and didn't think to order anything online this week."

"Oh.." Jade's face heated up in embarrassment and partially in arousal -Fredrick's is a lingerie store. "Who's night is it?" Jade asked looking away from her friend and at a random kiosk.

"Zayn and Liam's," she answered causally, as if threesomes were normal and everyone was doing it. (Everyone wished they were doing it with any two -three if that's your thing- of her boyfriends.) "Though Liam might have to sit this one out," she added and Jade cut her eyes at her friend. See? That was the favoritism Jade was talking about.

"And why should Liam sit out just because you're upset with him?" Jade asked.

"Well," Leigh-Anne said clicking her tongue in irritation. Jade was starting to be a bit of a bitch and that isn't what she wanted when she called her this morning for some girl time. "I'm not a fan of having him come in the back door, and since he's got babies on the brain, the front door is locked."

Legit.

Leigh-Anne almost said, 'You try taking Liam up the ass,' but knowing how parched Jade was for her boyfriend, she would probably take her up on that.

"Okay, but -"

"Jade," Leigh-Anne chirped, giving her the same overly happy smile that she gave one of the guys when she had had just about enough of them and was about to snap.

Jade stopped walking when she saw Leigh-Anne's smile. It was that smile. The smile that made a chill run down her spine and her blood run cold. It was the smile that said whatever she was doing or saying, was leading her into very dangerous territory and her best option was to turn back and never approach the subject again because she was speaking out of turn. Jade had never thought a simple smile could be so frightening until Leigh-Anne had first used it on her. And though Jade would never dare say it aloud, but she thought Leigh-Anne was a little psychotic under all of that hair... She also didn't care to find out if she was actually right.

"It's comforting knowing that you care about what I let and don't let my boyfriends do to my body but.." And if it was possible, that smile broadened. "Watch yourself," Leigh-Anne warned and entered her desired store, not giving her friend another glance.

...Jade's paralytic state didn't wear off until Leigh-Anne was atleast ten feet away from her.

_x

"What are your plans now?"

"Depends." Leigh-Anne shrugged one shoulder and quickly checked her review mirror, if this guy didn't get off her damn bumper she was going to throw a fit. "I was thinking about maybe taking Kailum somewhere, but he probably doesn't want to since he's been playing video games with Harry all day." But like a good boy, he would still join her and keep all of his complaints to himself.

"Maybe I should come over?" Jade offered. "That way we could uh.."

It was a thought.

Seeing how it was Zayn and Liam's day she needed to divide her attention between the two of them, and also seeing how she was upset with Liam, that meant he would be getting less than the normal amount and she could entertain Jade in place of it. The problem was Harry.

That fool wasn't going to comply with staying in his room until Jade left. When Harry got bored, he became restless and bothersome, Leigh-Anne attributed it to him having an undiagnosed case of ADHD. If Harry could keep out of sight it would work. But would he? Hell no.

"Can't," she answered after a brief pause that she played off as searching for something good to listen to on the radio. "Harry's sick, and -"

"Again?" Jade gasped. "He's always sick!"

"Yeah." Leigh-Anne nodded in agreement because by sick she really meant injured. "Harry's got this immunodeficiency problem and he refuses to take medication for it."

"Poor thing.." Jade said looking of the window. "He's sick like, every few months."

Yeah, because every few months Harry was walking, if he could, out of a job with a fresh gash.

"Yeah, everytime he catches a normal cold it's like having the flu for him,*" Leigh-Anne continued to lie. "And you know Harry, he's going to act like a baby until it passes. Maybe next time?"

Honestly, Leigh-Anne was done spending time with Jade for awhile, she wasn't used to her being so damn nosy. During their escapade in Fredrick's Jade kept asking about her boyfriends favorite colors and kinks and proceeded to pick out things that she would wear that matched Leigh-Anne's answers. Leigh-Anne had no issues disclosing some of her guys not-so-secret pleasures to her curious friend -it was girl talk and lately it seemed like Jade was experiencing a sexual drought and being a good friend, she would give her something to masturbate to (because who wouldn't when Leigh-Anne had three very fine pieces of ass servicing her sexually and told what each of them were into?)- and Jade would have a plethora of things to pick from... Even though her preference was anything Liam liked.

And that's when Leigh-Anne gave Jade a look.

Jade had picked out this disgustingly frilly, purple outfit and asked if Liam would like something like that. 'No, it's too ugly' is what Leigh-Anne replied, but her eyes were telling Jade that she was overstepping that mark again. When Jade's eyes came in contact with Leigh-Anne's she felt a pang of fear in all of her heartbeats. Jade quickly shut her mouth, hung up the atrocious outfit, and didn't say another word, pick out another ensemble or give her opinion out of the pain that was being foreshadowed in her friends eyes.

"Yeah, next time," Jade replied sullenly. She always looked forward to coming over and hanging out with this odd family. And secretly, between Jade and her innermost thoughts, she always had the best timing and would always catch Liam coming from their basement looking sweaty and his muscles pumped up and protruding out.

"I'll tell everyone you said hi," Leigh-Anne promised parking outside of Jade's home and unlocking the doors.

"Thanks, and tell Harry to get well soon for me? He should really take that medicine if it'll help him feel better," Jade said grabbing her, well, mostly Leigh-Anne's purchases for her, from the backseat and walking towards her front door. "Bye!"

Leigh-Anne smiled at Jade's innocent words because Harry didn't like Jade -loathed, was more like it- and Jade had no idea that Harry felt that way.

Harry had this inkling about the brunette years ago when Leigh-Anne first introduced them and he wasn't keen on the idea of Jade being around. She was too inquisitive for her own good and seemed like the type to keep pushing until she got what she wanted..even if it took years. Harry rarely changed his opinions of people after he had them down in his book.

"I'll tell him when I get back. I'll call you!" Leigh-Anne yelled out of her window. "Bye, Jade!"

Jade smiled and nodded at her friend before she entered her house. Leigh-Anne sent Harry a text saying that he owed her one for not bringing Jade back with her. When Harry hadn't responded back immediately Leigh-Anne put her phone in the passanger seat and started up her truck. She had a uncanny feeling she was being watched and she quickly scanned the perimeter before her eyes landed on Jade's house. Jade couldn't be seen but Leigh-Anne knew Jade was watching her through her doors peephole. Leigh-Anne smirked and put her truck in drive, honked her horn twice and pulled off.

_x

The house seemed empty when Leigh-Anne arrived. But their house seemed like a lot of things when it wasn't.

"Who's home?" she yelled dropping the keys in the bowl and lugging her clothes with her towards her room. No one answered and she rolled her eyes wondering if they were in the "Amplifying Room" as Harry had named it, he thought it was a cleverly funny name when the room was soundproof. To her knowledge Zayn wasn't back yet and he hadn't text her either, she was beginning to worry; Zayn should've been back before breakfast.

She released a small groan. She loved shopping, her DNA was encoded to love buying things she would probably never wear and spending money that either was hers or wasn't. Leigh-Anne was three generations deep into being a shopoholic and she didn't mind until it came to putting her things away. So as she hung up her lacy lingerie and placed her new clothes on hangers she wasn't expecting to hear Liam come into the room.

"Good afternoon," she greeted, not looking at him. Liam didn't show his face during breakfast and instead holed himself up in the basement, this was the first time she had seen him all day.

"Afternoon," he mumbled having a seat on their bed and watching her. Atleast she spoke, that meant she wasn't still completely livid.

"Where's everyone?" she wondered bending over and wantonly shaking her butt with the intent on arousing her boyfriend; she was wearing leggings and he loved her in those.

Liam bit his lip but kept his eyes glued to one of his favorite assets of hers with no remorse. He wouldn't take the bait she was setting out for him. Routinely she would tease them throughout the day and deny them if they acted on it, and of she didn't, she had to be extremely horny. Liam could admit that denying them had its advantages. It strengthened their self-control and when they finally managed to get her into the bedroom they always let her have it. Just a little pay back for the non-stop teasing.

"Zayn came back and gave Harry some meds, Harry didn't want to say it but you could see that he was feeling the pain again; he's asleep now. Zayn took Kailum out to the park and then for ice cream," Liam reported, tilting his head to the side to further admire his girlfriends jiggling rump.

"Oh," she said in response. "How are you?"

Liam almost scoffed at her question.

He was still sour about her reacting the way she did in the basement yesterday. He was annoyed that Zayn hadn't invited him to the park with him and Kailum. He was becoming excited watching her attempts tantalize him and then frustrated because he knew his chances of pleasure were slim to none tonight.

"I'm good," he answered lamely before making his decision to just reach out and grab her by the hips and sit her down on his forming problem in his pants.

Alas, his plans were foiled when Leigh-Anne stood up straight and grabbed something out of one of her many bags and held it up to her body.

"I'm thinking about wearing this tonight. Do you like it?" she asked with fake innocence.

"No," he half lied. He could care less about what she wore when sex was their destination, though he appreciated her efforts. But for a second he envisioned her wearing it and this green thing looked like it could be fun taking off...if she let him get that far.

"No?" she asked, pretending to be hurt by his opinion. "But I picked this one out just for you, I thought it looked like the outfit that one chick wears in your Batman comics*... How about I try it on and -"

"Leigh, stop playing around," Liam said cutting her off in irritation. "I'm not in the mood for games right now." His dick was going to start hurting because it had been two days since he had her and he knew he would have to just deal with it until she felt like relieving him of it.

"Well you're no fun, Liam," she scoffed, turning away and hanging up her outfit. "Maybe I wanted to play with you."

"Leigh, I'm sorry," he muttered. "Like, I know you're still upset about last night."

Leigh-Anne snorted.

"But not talking about it isn't going to make it go away," he finished saying. He caught her off gaurd and grabbed her hand and yanked her into his lap, she groaned and tried to escape.

"Yes, it is," she argued still trying to fight his hold. "There's nothing to really talk about. I'm not having a baby with you...or with any of you," she added thinking about what Jade said.

"But why?!" Liam asked trying to control his tempter. He wanted to shake an answer out of her but accidentally snapping her neck from the brutal whiplash he'd give her wasn't worth it. His girlfriend was so damn stubborn, if he had to name her worst quality that would be his first choice without a doubt.

"Okay," she said calmly, deciding to just relax in his lap. She never understood why she tried fighting for freedom whenever she was trapped by arms, she wasn't stronger them him and she knew it didn't make a difference. "Say if I agree -and I'm not saying that I am, because I'm definitely not- but let's say that I did," she pitched to him. "What if we're out doing a job and something happends to me? Hmm? What if instead of Harry, it's actually me that needs to be stitched up and drugged?"

"That's ridiculous, nothing ever happens to you when we -"

"But if it did?" she asked seriously. "Is it really worth the pain of possibly losing me and the baby?"

"Nothing would be worth losing you or our child, but-"

"But nothing!" she snapped. "I can't afford to keep worrying about the four of you and adding a baby to that isn't going to help, Liam. I can't -"

"Zayn told me what happened," Liam said solemnly and it left Leigh-Anne speechless.

He gave Zayn his word that he wouldn't let Leigh-Anne know that he knew, but he did. Liam couldn't believe that their Leigh-Anne, his Leigh-Anne, his girlfriend, the woman he actually loved more than his mother, survived something so traumatically devastating and still managed to carry on normally afterwards.

"Zayn lied," was all she could say.

"We both know Zayn hardly ever lies.." Liam hugged her closer and brought a hand up to stroke her hair just in case she started to have a break down. "And it's alright if you're afraid of it happening again, it really is. But I'm telling you that it won't. Me and Harry are here now and things are different. There's no way the three of us would ever let something happen to you and you know that. We would rather die first before we let anything happen to you."

Still, she was speechless.

"And don't be angry with Zayn for telling me. I asked him why you flipped out the way you did and he told me so I would understand and so I wouldn't hold it against you," Liam explained. "And I don't... You weren't overreacting," he admitted. "I just think that the timing was wrong back then and -"

"So the timing is right, now?" she grit out, her teeth gnashing together. "Zayn obviously didn't tell you everything because things are ten times worse now than what they were back then," she spat.

"But we're better equipped now, Leigh. Technically, you never have to leave the house," he pointed out. "You can do everything from here, and if it's a medical issue, Zayn knows enough to handle whatever it is until we get back here. Leigh, we know you love being out there in the middle of all of the chaos but it's not mandatory. You don't have to be, you just want to be."

"So what you're saying is that I should just sit in the house and miss out on everything?" she asked incredulously, Liam must've really lost it this time. "The three of you can't just walk up on these people without getting shot in the head, Liam. Maybe Zayn can, but you and Harry would be dead in a second if they saw you."

"We'll all be fine, Leigh-Anne," Liam said calmly to her. "Nobody is going to shoot anybody. We're -"

"You don't know that!" she screamed in his face. "You don't know these people, Liam! You don't fucking know what they do to people or what they've done to people to say that!"

Liam clenched his jaw. She was going it again, that yelling thing that he hated.

"You could just look at these people wrong and they'll shoot you dead on the spot," she said lowering her voice. "All of the jobs the three of you go on without me are because I know there's no real threat, I wouldn't let you guys go if there was. I'm crazy, not fucking stupid, Liam. There's some shit that even the four of us can't do and I know it. I fucking know it.." she whispered sadly and looked at him.

"Then we won't go-"

"You're not getting it, Liam, we have to," she told him. "We don't have a choice, if we don't, they're going to find us and they'll kill us. It won't matter how many fucking guns and bombs we have or how many damn poisons we make, they will find us and they will kill us. They'll come to this house, they'll put us in cages and kill us slowly, one by one in front of the rest so we can suffer."

"Leigh-"

"They will kill us, Liam," she interrupted and gulped down a ball of something she rarely felt. "They'll kill Kailum too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Dude, that's how my Lupus is. Like, when I get sick its like death. Real shit, get that Vitamin C.
> 
> **Brownie points for anyone that can name the Batman character Leigh-Anne's referring to ;)


	4. 4

So Liam dropped it.

He dropped the entire conversation and just held his girlfriend who looked ready to cry as she sat sniffling on his lap and fanning her eyes so her tears wouldn't spill over.

The image of what they would do to her didn't matter in the slightest. They were cruel, wicked people and she knew that. Kailum was so innocent and naive, they would love to torture him until he couldn't feel anything or until he was misshapen before they ended his life before her very eyes. They would. You've heard of "Women and children first," right? Of course you have. These people took that and gave it a twist -and it wasn't a good one.

Usually that meant to save the women and the children first. Get them to the emergency exits, give them the life jackets, etc., but for these group of people, with morals that could only be shared among the dastardly and Satan himself, that meant torment them first. Burn the babies alive until they've gone from a bundle of joy to a pile of ash. Make the mothers release bloodcurdling screams for the sparring of their children's lives and after she can no longer make a sound, cover her with the soot of her child, cut out her esophagus and wrap it around her neck.

"What about the men?" you ask? The men?

They got to watch.

The men had to bear witness to their families suffering through what had to be Hell on Earth. If they were lucky enough, they would join them, but these people advocated for Satan. They would keep the men alive, they would be broken at this point, knowing nothing but pain and the sound of their loved ones dying and knowing there was absolutely nothing they could do to save them. Once you've stripped a man of his power, pride, and all the things he held dear, he is no longer a man, he is a hollow body with no purpose. And that's what these people liked reducing them to.

So with all of that in mind, they wouldn't hesitate to take Kailum and put him to the test and see what kind of child she, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, had been raising all of these years. No doubt in their fucked up minds that Kailum would have to be a special child if she seemed to get more..."security" for him; Liam and Harry, that is. And then the pain would start. Them touring Kailum until he cried for her and his uncles to stop them though they were completely powerless. After Kailum was dead, after they've ripped out her heart, she knew Zayn would be next.

Now maybe you're thinking, what happened to women and children first? Oh yes. They did that. But Leigh-Anne? Oh, she earned herself special privileges with these people and had become an exception to their golden rule.

She would go last.

She would be like the men and would be forced to watch them kill her family until she was nothing but a useless heap, dead to the world and plagued with the guilt of being the reason she was attending the funeral of her whole family in one day...and that's if they were gracious enough to let her.

That would come down to a coin toss.

If it landed on tails they would pack up the scraps, if there were any, of their bodies and let her deal with how she wanted them; cremation was always picked when you only had 10 pounds collectively of your loved one, their disfigured bodies, if left in tact were never fit for caskets. If the coin landed on heads -nobody wanted heads. They would take their head from their bodies and put them on stakes, if they felt like being fancy they would cut the spine out along with it still attached to the skull. They would take these stakes in the cells they would lock the men in and keep them there. Day after day they would watch as their loved one's head decayed and smelled of death until that head was nothing but a skull on a stick...Even then these people saves their eyes and put them a jar and gave them to their prisoners as souvenirs.

These were the kinds of people they were dealing with...and that was putting it lightly.

_x

"Did you guys have fun?" Leigh-Anne asked Zayn lazily, her head lolled to the side when he and Kailum came through the front door with twin smiles on their faces.

"Hey," he greeted, leaning down to kiss her cheek as she cuddled with Liam on the couch. "And yeah, always." Zayn was a little suspicious of their lovey-dovey behavior when they had been at odds the last time he saw her but he'd kept his suspicions to himself.

She had a breakdown in Liam's lap and he did the only thing he knew would calm her down. They got high. Maybe a little too high for an average day like this, the three L's they smoked was overdoing it, one would've sufficed but Liam wanted to make sure she was okay.

"She's shopping with Aphrodite right now," Liam said snickering and Zayn joined in.

"Oh, it was one of those afternoons?" Zayn asked raising his eyebrows towards his hairline in surprise. "Kal? Take a shower, you smell like outside..." Zayn said slowly, looking over his zooted girlfriend.

"But why? You were outside too and you're not-"

Zayn raised one of his eyebrows questioning Kailum's defiance, Kailum closed his mouth and gave a curt nod before he went to his room to get a change of clothes. Zayn's attention was put back on Leigh-Anne as she laid lethargically on Liam in anyway she pleased, and the way she pleased was with her sitting on his lap, one arm slung behind him and the hand of the arm playing with his hair.

"I can't believe you guys started without me," Zayn tutted, moving Leigh-Anne's legs and taking a seat next to Liam.

"She started-"

"I had a moment," she said cutting Liam off and giving him an ineffective, glassy-eyed glare.

"That bad?" Zayn murmured rubbing up her legs.

"Yeah, but I'm better now," she replied smiling at him sheepishly.

Zayn smiled back and gave Liam a knowing look. "Don't you love her when she's like this, Li?"

Liam hummed, nodding as his hand rubbed her neck in small, sensual circles creeping up to her earlobe to massage it. "She's always calmer.."

"Sucks that it isn't night time," Zayn hinted, still rubbing her thighs, his fingers adding pressure to the sensitive points in her legs through her pants.

Liam chuckled to himself knowing how much Zayn loved to be high when he'd have sex, though they agreed nothing could feel better than Leigh-Anne, Zayn felt like it enhanced the magnitude of it all. The feeling of her walls wrapped tightly around him, the smell of their passion, their uneven breath fanning over their hot skin, every lip lock, lick and scratch was multiplied.

"It does," Liam agreed. The hand that had been massaging her ear now gently holding her face. Her eyes were closed, her face was peaceful and relaxed as she breathed slowly. "And look at her, so beautiful."

The older of the males eyes landed on her and he couldn't fight the smirking etching onto his lips. She was rubbing on Liam's chest and slowly spreading her legs open for his hand to continue upward.

"She wants it," Liam stated.

"If she wants it, I think we should give it to her, don't you?" Zayn asked, satisfied with the quiet moan she elicited. His hand was closer to her aching heat and he hadn't tried to touch it, though she wished he would. Zayn was teasing knowing that her skin was going to break out in goosebumps from being turned on.

"I think we should...Who's gonna watch Kal?" Liam's trusty hand was making his way down her chest only after stopping and tracing her quivering lip, a tattletale sign that she was getting worked up and wanted something to do with her mouth.

"Harry should be waking up in a bit." Zayn almost laughed when Leigh-Anne carelessly threw her leg up until it hooked around his shoulder. Her need was growing and she wanted Zayn's hands to be unrestricted on his way up to her pulsing core. "He'll keep Kal busy while we keep her busy."

"And dinner?" Liam wanting to spare her a little and leaned down to capture her lips with his, Leigh-Anne's body was always so hypersensitive to the touch when she was like this.

"I think the three of us will have enough to eat..but we can order pizza or something," Zayn told him, hearing her small moan of protest when Liam pulled back from her kiss. "Wanna take her upstairs while I take a shower?"

Liam gave a nod and groaned when her lips made contact with the sensitive park of his neck, keeping her mouth busy. Zayn ducked from under her leg and watched Liam easily pick up Leigh-Anne when he stood up and carried her to their room, her mouth still licking at his skin.

"The two of you should stop talking about me like I'm not right here," she told him, holding onto his neck and biting the juncture where his neck met his shoulder. "You guys make it sound like it only takes a couple hits and I turn into a submissive bitch."

Liam sputtered dramatically after he winched from her bite. "You? Submissive bitch? Noooo," he exaggerated.

Leigh-Anne snorted at his lie. "Are you going to let me wear that one outfit I bought?" she asked backing up to the headboard when he placed her on the bed. "The green one?"

"I think we should save that one for my night." Which was five long days away... Maybe he could convince her to wear it on Saturday? It was an optional day of rest for her, but she had two of them and hardly ever used both.

She nodded and reached for the drawer that held condoms and threw one at him.

"You're wearing it."

Leigh-Anne didn't throw it hard enough and it landed at the foot of the bed. Liam picked up the golden wrapper and looked at it quizzically. When was the last time he actually wore a condom?

"Aren't you on the shot?" he asked glancing at her, then back to the contraceptive to see if it had already expired. Liam wasn't aware that they even had anymore condoms in the house.

"Yeah." She had been for years now, it was easier than remembering to take a pill everyday and she was convinced it was the reason her butt was so plump. "But I'm not taking any chances with you when you're talking this let's make a baby shit. It might enhance your sperm or something."

"...And you want me to wear a condom..?" The question came out sadly. Honestly, he couldn't remember when the last time he wore one was... though it was probably the time Harry convinced him to try this thing and that was at least a year ago.

"Yes, Liam," she groaned. It wasn't damn rocket science, if she didn't want him to wear it she wouldn't have taken it out. Sluggishly she got on her knees and locked eyes with her boyfriend in the room. "I was thinking about letting you sit out and watch," she told him truthfully, bringing her shirt over her head and happy when it landed in the corner she tossed it in.

Liam grimaced at the thought. He didn't think he would enjoy voyeurism as much as he did (the hell, there were two other guys he had to share her with, he didn't have a choice), but it wasn't too bad and he and the guys would compare things. He preferred to be very hands on with their lovemaking.

"Li, help me with these?" She unbuttoned her pants and had begun wiggling them down past her butt and hips and Liam grabbed the material bunching around her ankles and expertly pulled her pants off in one tug. He ended up removing her socks too and threw her things in the same corner her shirt was while she laid down on her back. "Thanks."

"Can't I pull out?" he asked striping off his clothes down to his boxers, climbing on the bed and crawling over to her body. He kissed her lips first, slowly. Then his mouth trailed along her jaw and down towards her collarbone hoping she would agree, he'd settle for pulling out over wearing a condom.

"You're the worst when it comes to pulling out and you know it," she scoffed, opening her smooth legs so Liam's body could lay comfortably between them. "Sitting out is always an option."

Liam grunted and tenderly palmed her core with his large, rough hand to test her wetness, his thumb rubbing her clit through her boyshorts and drawing a content sigh from Leigh-Anne. He was kissing the peaks of her breasts and drawing cursive L's for "Liam" over the fabric of her underwear when he spoke again.

"But Leigh, I don't want to wear it.."

"I'm not gonna argue with you about this," she told him, thrusting her hips into his hand and pushing on his head so he'd go down lower, "when there's better things you could be doing with your mouth right now."

Liam licked his way down her body and stopped at the top of her underwear, the index finger of the hand that was holding her center hooked itself on the cloth and pulled it to the side to observe his progress, he wasn't satisfied and decided to take them off entirely. Looking up at her he licked his lips slowly and gave her his free hand. Greedily she took his fingers in her mouth making him groan when she swirled her tongue around his digits and held his gaze. She took his fingers deeper into her mouth and he lightly pressed down on her tongue, for some reason Liam loved the sound of her gagging on him.

Liam pulled his fingers from her mouth when he thought she had slicked them up enough with her spit and slowly, too slowly for her, slid one finger inside of her feverish aperture, curled his thick solo digit and dragged it along her pulsing walls when he withdrew his finger, then pushing it back in and repeating.

"You're too slow, Liam," she complained. "Zayn's gonna be in here in a minute and he's expecting a show, I'm sure." She rolled her eyes and busied her hands with massaging her breast through her bra.

"Slow and steady. Zayn can wait," he told her adding another finger and stroking his own arousal through his constricting boxers. Liam bent down to taste her and Leigh-Anne could feel her heart rate increase in anticipation, her body began to slowly bake when his tongue slipped in with his fingers. She wanted to arch her back but he held her down by her hip a powerful hand, Liam was always slower than the others when it came to working her up, however it was always worth the wait when she hit her climax.

He lapped at her slit, he could never compair her flavor to anything he's ever had. Nothing could adequately describe what he thought she tasted of, it was like when someone asks you to describe the taste of water. Impossible. So like a camel in a scorching desert to an oasis, he would continue to drink everything her body offered until he was replete and he would savor it.

Leigh-Anne's hand pulled at his hair impatiently, if he was going to hold her down he could at least move a little faster. Now with both hands she took hold of his head and forced him to push his tongue in deeper. He quickly slipped his fingers from her and lifted her hips up from the bed and continued, still at his own pace. Stiffening his muscle and probing deeper, his fingers kneading her ass as he did so.

This is how Zayn found them when he walked in the room, blunt in between his smirking lips when Leigh-Anne made a fist and bit down on it, her eyes screwed shut until she heard the door close. She was so focused on every move Liam's tongue and lips made on her and the thumb that had found it's way back to her clit to notice Zayn's presence until she actually opened her eyes.

He only wore a towel around his slender hips and she knew he'd just gotten out of the shower from the smell of his body wash and his slightly damp looking hair.

"Leigh, remember senior year when your mom caught us?" he asked admiring Liam's work when her legs began to quiver.

"She caught us alot," she replied in a shaky breath after taking her fist from her mouth. "Pass that."

"That's true.." Zayn said in a chuckle, handing her the blunt and shaking his head. "Remember the one time she walked in on you riding me?"

Leigh-Anne took a hit and held her breath for a few seconds before exhaling with her answer. "Which time? Was it the one after that party or when we had skipped school so we could fuck all day?"

"School." Zayn laughed when he heard Liam snort. Leigh-Anne continued smoking and knew Liam knew she was close, all of the signs were pointing to it. Her breathing, the way she fluttered on his tongue, her legs that were now over his broad shoulders and trying to close but he wouldn't let them. She was going to gush any second now. "And you just kept going like she wasn't there in the doorway? What did you say? To come back in like, 10 minutes because you were busy?"

"Well I was," she said passing the herb back to Zayn. "Though that 10 minutes turned into 30 because you wanted another blowjob so we decided to sixty-nine and that turned into a quicky...She was so pissed."

"Deb never did like me," Zayn chuckled out, leaning over to kiss Leigh-Anne before saying, "Open."

"She loved you. She just didn't like us fucking everyday," she said accepting the shotgun he was attempting to give her, her hands immediately fisting the sheets when her orgasm finally hit. She came with a breathless sigh and Liam didn't stop when her juices flowed onto his determined muscle, he actually sped up when they did. "And night...and at Christmas when the family was over..." she continued when Liam slowly lowered her hips back down to the bed.

Zayn laughed at the sight of Liam, his pink lips shiny and wet. "You've got something on your face."

"Good, maybe my beard will grow in as thick as yours if I keep it there."

_x

Hours later she awoke in alarm. The bittersweet thing about smoking was the sleep you went into afterwards, it was always the deepest sleep, and she slept for hours after they'd eaten.

It was dark now and there was a banging noise in her house so she only assumed the worse. Leigh-Anne grabbed the gun from the bottom dresser drawer, checked the bullets -a full clip- and threw on the first thing she could get her hands on, and that happened to be an oversized t-shirt that she thought was Liam's. (It was comforting knowing that Zayn and Liam would just leave her naked after round two like that.) She took in one calming breath before opening her bedroom door and proceeding to searching for where this noise was coming from.

All of the rooms were clear, Kailum was asleep in his room but her boyfriends were still missing. There wasn't any note or text when she checked her phone and she could only think of one place they could be at this time at night.

The Amplifying Room.

"Where is it?!" Liam yelled in the guys face when she entered the room, he had the mans black shirt fisted in his hands and Liam was shaking him roughly. "Tell me where the f_ck it is!"

If she had to guess his age, she would say he was middle-aged, no older than 56. He was mostly bald, and what little hair he did have was greying, short, and sandy brown. Brown eyes, his nose made him look like he was Italian, and he had a few freckles that fanned over his face. The guy still being shaken by Liam had more wrinkles than an elephants ass and he was clearly overweight... Who was he and why was he here? They'd woken her up over him?

"What's going on?" she asked putting her gun down to her side seeing that the situation was under control when Zayn looked like he was supervising. "Who's this?"

"Leigh, this is Charlie," Zayn introduced. "He's going to cooperate and tell us where the file is."

"I'm not telling you sh!t!" Charlie snapped, and spit in Liam's face. Leigh-Anne's eyes turned into unfriendly slits aimed at the man and walked up to him and gently pushed Liam out of the way before Liam broke the guys jaw; they at least needed to get some answers out of him before they disposed of him. Though Liam had taken it better than he had the first time it happened, he shot the guy without a second thought and now he was only muttering something about why he was the only one that ever got spit on and wiping the mans saliva from his face.

"Aw sh!t, look what you've done. First you woke her up so I know she's pissed, and Leigh doesn't appreciate it when people don't cooperate. I'm telling you, Charlie, she's a crazy b!tch. I would just tell us everything you know if I were you," Harry advised snickering to himself. He was leaning against the wall, his tattoed arms crossed and smirking. He always enjoyed watching Leigh-Anne work, that's the reason he really fell for her, she didn't do the bullshit, she was always business when it mattered and it always mattered. He would never stand in between her and something she wanted, he tried that once and it didn't end well for him, hence the scar covered by a butterfly on his torso.

"Charlie? Do you know who I am?" she asked eyeing his busted lip and black eye that was starting to swell and wondering who got to this guy first, Zayn or Liam.

He gave her a once over and smirked as best as he could. "A barefooted b!tch in a t-shirt."

"Wrong." She cocked her gun and shot him in the left foot, he cursed and yelled in pain and she waited for him to be quiet. "Wanna guess again or would you rather just tell us where the file is? The next wrong answer you give me, I'll shoot your other foot."

"Only if that pretty boy over there sucks my d!ck," he sneered, nodding his head at Zayn and the sound of another shot rang out and Charlie's cries followed after.

"I told you she was crazy," Harry chuckled.

"You're making this alot harder than it needs to be, Charlie. Just gives us an address. If the next words out of your mouth aren't an address, this next bullet is gonna be in your patella," she warned him.

"What's a-" She shot him in the kneecap before he could finish his question.

"That's a patella," Leigh-Anne answered coldly through gritted teeth. "No one here is f_cking around. I'm gonna end up shooting you in the goddamn head if you don't tell me where the f_ck the damn file is!" she screamed pistol whipping him in the mouth, busting his lip open more and cutting his gums. His mouth was pouring blood at this point, he hunched over as much as he could and let it pour into his lap.

"Leigh, go easy on the guy.." Harry said jokingly and she fired a warning shot towards him so he would know to shut up. There wasn't anyway she would've actually hit him, but still, she wasn't about to go easy on him when he was being difficult. She only wanted an address.

"What the f_ck, Leigh?" Harry couldn't even move fast enough to dodge that even if he wanted to. Good thing she wasn't serious. "Charlie, man, you better tell her. She just f_cking shot at me and I'm her boyfriend!"

Charlie laughed, blood spraying out of his mouth when he did so. "No sh!t, really? I thought you were her girlfriend."

Leigh-Anne shot his other kneecap. "We can do this all night, Charlie...Do you have a family? A wife? ..Husband maybe? Children? " she asked with little interest circling him.

"Nope.."

"So if I kill you, nobody's gonna miss you?" she wondered arching her eyebrow.

"Nope."

"So what's stopping me from killing you right now?" she asked causally, walking around behind their hostage and putting the gun to the back of his head. "Cause if you think I won't pull this tigger, you're wrong. We just need an address and we'll let you go."

"Then you're better off killing me cause this pig don't squeal." He grinned, his teeth covered in blood and it ran down his chin.

"Charlie, where's the file?" Zayn asked tiredly, approaching the man and lowering Leigh-Anne's gun from Charlie's head. He wasn't in the mood to clean up brains tonight and there was enough blood on the titled floor.

"I told you I don't know where it is."

"Then what do you know?" Liam joined Zayn's side. "You know something Charlie, if you didn't, you wouldn't have that tattoo on your wrist."

"Tattoo?" Leigh-Anne asked in surprise.

"F22A," Liam told her.

"Oh, he knows something," she muttered moving and putting the barrel of her gun between the guys legs. "Listen here, Charlie, you've got to the count of three to tell us where the file is or I'm gonna shoot this little d!ck of yours off, got it? I'm tired as f_ck, you woke me up, and you're clearly in the mood to die today. I'll oblige that wish, Charlie." She leaned in close to be eye level with him. If he dared to spit in her face she was going to let off three shots to his d!ck and the rest in his as$. "Try me."

"I'm telling you I don't know where the file is," he muttered trying to squirm in his chair. Her gun was pressed right on him and even though he thought he took those first four shots extremely well, he knew couldn't handle a hole in his d!ck.

"One," Harry singsonged excitedly.

"Tell me something, Charlie," Leigh-Anne hissed pressing harder on him.

"Two," Zayn sighed shaking his head because great, he wasn't going clean up brains from the floor tonight. He was gonna clean up blood that leaked from some guys genitals..Whee.

"Charlie.." she warned, her eyes zooming across the mans face and seeing pure fear written all over it.

Liam opening his mouth and,

"Okay!" Charlie gave in before Liam could say the number that would seal his fate of never procreating. "I'll tell you!" He looked at Zayn, then Liam, Harry, and lastly at Leigh-Anne. "Just-just take the gun off my dick and I'll tell you!"

"Don't tell me what to do, Charlie," she spat in his face. "What's the address?"

"73 Winchester," he chocked out quickly.

"Are you sure?" she asked slowly, easing up on his groin.

He nodded eagerly. "Positive. But there's heavy security and cameras. You won't be able to-"

She shot him anyways and Zayn groaned. They'd actually gotten the address from him, why'd she go and shoot him anyways?

"Don't tell me what I can't do," she muttered pulling away from the howling man. "He'll bleed out in eight minutes," Leigh-Anne informed. "Don't worry, I'll clean this up."

___xx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys...what is this? Like, what even is this?? Lol
> 
> Thoughts on everybody so far? I mean, Leigh's clearly a bad bitch though ;)
> 
> I don't know what happened with Liam kissing Leigh's kitty...like, I'm sorry I even wrote that. It wasn't originally part of the chapter but I wrote it anyways just because..I don't even know lol.
> 
> #HeadGameStrong
> 
> -unedited
> 
> Outtie xx


	5. Cinq

"Leigh, wake up," Zayn whispered while brushing her hair and she stirred. "Wake up, Sleepyhead..." 

"She's not getting up," Harry said confidently from his seat infront of their TV. "She's been out for an hour already."

"I know but I really don't want to carry her," Zayn replied with a short chuckle afterwards, shaking Leigh-Anne's shoulder. "Leigh, wake up. Love & Hip Hop is on..."

"Why would you tell her that? Now she's gonna make me get off the game," Harry whined, pressing the buttons on the controller furiously. He had just started a new mission on Batman Arkham Knight and wanted to finish it. 

"You've been playing for three hours, I think you need a break," Zayn told him before grabbing Leigh-Anne and hauling her from the chair with a grunt. 

"Sounds like someone needs to workout more," Harry commented under his breath.

"Suck my dick, Harry." Zayn put her over his shoulder.

"Maybe later." Harry paused the game and looked at them. "Why didn't you get Liam to carry her?" 

"He's busy practicing with Kal, remember?"

"Still? I don't understand how you two can do that for hours on end. Doesn't it get boring?" Harry wasn't the training and working out type, he only did it to keep in shape and that's it; Leigh-Anne would never allow him be out of shape.

"You play video games that much, do they ever get boring to you?" 

The younger man snorted, turned up his nose and resumed his beloved game. Harry was offended by Zayn's question. How could video games ever get boring when there were so many to choose from?

"Just for that, I'm not sucking your dick later."

Zayn laughed at Harry's reaction as he ascended tenstairs. "Yes you will," the ravenette told him with certainty, it echoed through the hall.

Zayn laid her down on the bed carefully and sighed. She had been working nonstop for over three weeks since Charlie had given up the address and was she exhausted. She woke up, made breakfast, worked, made lunch, worked, made dinner, worked, had sex with whoever on their night, and after she'd work until she fell asleep and did it all over again. He needed her to stop, Leigh-Anne was driving herself crazy with this and it was driving him crazy watching her. He kissed her forehead before leaving their room and quietly closed the bedroom door.

Zayn could hear the sound of punches connecting with their target and could only hope it was Kal hitting Liam and not the other way around when he approached the basement stairs.

"Duck," Liam told Kailum and swung at him when Zayn could finally see them. Liam was on his knees to make things a little more fair for their nephew, though he still managed to be a head taller.

Zayn came behind Kailum and put his hands in the right position and shifted his footing to balance him.

"We don't need you to be like Harry and start blocking with your face," he instructed. "Don't offer your face just to get punched in it."

"Okay.." Kailum murmured. His Uncle Liam had punched him a few times in the face a lot harder than he would've liked but he didn't say anything about it. Kal was sure his Uncle Liam didn't mean to hurt him, they were doing this so he would be stronger.

Zayn backed away and let Liam continue. He had a seat on the floor and looked around their basement for a second before looking back at the two sparring.

"We've gotta do something about Leigh," Zayn said after Kailum successfully blocked a punch from Liam. "She's making herself sick."

"You know that's how she is. She obsesses."

"Yeah, but she's losing weight from stressing. I just carried her to the room and you can tell the difference. Hopefully she'll stay asleep for awhile, though." Zayn shook his head knowing that she would wake up and go right back to working.

"What are you suggesting?" Liam asked and leaned away from Kailum's hits. "Don't block with your face," he said as a reminder and swung at the boy. "Move your feet, Kal. Lean away."

"She needs a break. I was thinking the three of us should do something special for her tonight." Zayn rubbed his scruffy chin in thought, their girlfriend needed more than just a break from work. Maybe they could go on a big date or even take a vacation, go somewhere fun.

"I don't think she'll handle three when she's as tired as she's been," Liam commented, easily grappling Kailum and pinning him to the ground. "Not bad, but we'll work on it."

Liam let Kailum go and rubbed his head when the boy took off his headgear. Liam took off his own and sat beside Zayn, grabbing his water bottle and drinking from it.

"She doesn't have to handle any tonight. Tonight isn't about us." Zayn gave Kailum a smile after pointing to the muscle shirt he was wearing. 

Kailum looked down at his shirt and shrugged. The uncles in his presence always said that sweat was the proof of hardwork. 

"Can I walk on the treadmill?"

"Of course, but not too fast," Liam answered.

"Maybe Liam and I will spar and show you what a fight really looks like?" Zayn suggested, bumping Liam with his knee. "Though I'm sure I'll win."

"You? Zayn, please." Liam scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I'm trained." He was an elite solider and it would take alot more than Zayn to bring him down.

"I am too."

"By who? Your imagination? Fake fights in movies?" Liam taunted and scoffed again. 

"The street's finest," Zayn replied, then bit his lip. The two of them had this argument all the time and it would end when Zayn asked who would win between Floyd Mayweather and Bruce Lee and then Liam agreeing with Zayn when the latter said that if you can light a match with a nunchuck, you win. Period. Liam was just a sore loser from when they fought for the first time and Zayn won. He refused to live it down but also refused to get his rematch when Zayn offered him one.

"There's no code in the streets. Anything for the win."

"Forget the code for a moment cause I'm seasoned like a good steak," Liam said trying to dismiss the conversation. "There's now way around it."

"Seasoned? Nah, I think you're just salty," Zayn replied with a snicker attached.

"Any Marine would whip any of you and your little underground friends."

Zayn smirked and leaned closer to Liam, invading his personal space and spoke at the same volume. 

"Like you? Cause I know how much you like using Leigh's whip on me when-"

Liam's hand covered Zayn's mouth and he glared at him. 

"Kal doesn't need to hear that," he hissed, glancing at the child who had started hanging up his gloves and ignoring them.

Zayn rolled his eyes and licked Liam's palm so he'd know to let his mouth go. 

"Kal already knows." Zayn snorted. "I'm sure he's heard everything from the four of us by now."

Zayn watched their nephew as he started the treadmill on a low level. He was so small for his age, but mature, it amazed him considering what Leigh-Anne had told him what the doctors said when Kailum was born. 

"Don't say that," Liam muttered in embarrassment, covering his blushing face with a hand. 

"Too late." Zayn snickered again and intertwined his hand with Liam's free one. Liam tried pulling it away but Zayn held it tightly and bumped his shoulder against Liam's sweaty one. "If you've noticed, Kal doesn't care."

"That doesn't mean that I don't care," Liam mumbled.

"Do you?" Zayn wondered, looking at Liam's face and watching it deepen in color. "How can this," he squeezed Liam's hand, "still bother you?"

Liam didn't answer, he only looked away from Zayn and at his shoes.

"I'm talking to you," Zayn said louder, squeezing Liam's hand harder to get his attention back. "It's one thing out in public but we're in our own home, Liam? Really? And honestly, you couldn't have found any guys more attractive than Harry and myself."

Liam rolled his eyes at Zayn's cockiness, but knew he was right. 

Liam couldn't deny that Harry and Zayn both had their own appeal, though it wasn't something he thought would ever appeal to him. The first time he had ever kissed Zayn was the first time he had ever kissed another man, he had done CPR on one of his comrades before but he knew that didn't count. Leigh-Anne had made him kiss Zayn, and if he remembered correctly, Zayn wasn't exactly jumping for joy either. 

Leigh-Anne had a gun in each hand, both aimed at their heads, and in a way that only she could, calmly told them to kiss each other. Liam thought she was bluffing. 

Liam thought wrong and was grazed on his arm by a bullet. 

He pulled Zayn in so quick and pressed his lips against his that Liam surprised himself. That's when Liam realized how different a guys lips were from a girls, that was also the time when he realized that lips were just that, lips and that Zayn's lips were kinda nice to kiss. They weren't the softest, but they weren't super chapped and Liam kinda liked that too. Zayn tasted like their favorite cigarettes, smelled like Versace cologne and Liam felt like his body could handle more than what he was used to giving women. He thought he had hurt Leigh-Anne once by being too rough with her, she was fine, but he felt like he wouldn't have the same problem with the man who's hair he was messing up when his hand ran through it.

Zayn seemed more willing to comply with her demands, not that he wanted to, but he would do anything she told him to... especially when she had a gun an the target was his skull. Why would he want to kiss a guy when he had Leigh-Anne? She was all he ever needed and he was content with just her. However, he didn't know that his girlfriend had caught him staring at Liam's mouth sometimes when he would speak and that brought on the situation; Zayn found Liam to be a good looking guy so he couldn't help but stare sometimes, it wasn't his fault. 

Leigh-Anne told Liam to ease up when his hand found its way into Zayn's shirt. Liam seemed a little too eager to feel Zayn up and she thought that was going too far. Zayn thought that Liam was a good kisser, frantic as fuck since Leigh-Anne had shot him, but he was good and wouldn't have minded a bit of touching; just a bit, not too much.

Later that night Liam pulled Zayn to the side and asked about Leigh-Anne and her threat. She merely grazed him and treated it afterwards, but it reminded him what he had really gotten himself into when he accepted her strange proposal of joining their family. He wanted to know if Zayn truly thought she would shoot them, she looked serious and it wasn't like she shot a blank at him. Was her threat real? That bullet was definitely real. Was this what he had to look forward to with the two of them? It sent a chill through his body when Zayn eyed their girlfriend for a second before answering Liam with a firm yes.

Leigh-Anne did apologize later, she knew she was wrong for threatening to shoot them if they didn't kiss. It was wrong in a lot of ways and she shouldn't have done. It was because the attraction was so painfully obvious that it was beginning to hurt her to witness it. If Zayn wanted to see what Liam tasted like he only had to say so and the three of them could talk it over. Their relationship wasn't going to work if they couldn't communicate their simple wants.

Leigh-Anne wasn't expecting Liam to get to second base, though, she only wanted to fix Zayn's curiosity when it came to their new addition to their family. It drove her insane the way Zayn would look at Liam, and Liam was too oblivious to notice how Zayn would look at him, he would blink ever so slowly and lick his lips even slower. She thought it was pretty damn hot having them together, she had wondered if the other would mind, but seeing Zayn's blatant interest was all she needed to know.

Zayn and Liam didn't go much further than that. There was some dry humping whenever Zayn was in a mood for something a little different, but they'd never been actually intimate with a man until Harry came along.

Harry was open with Leigh-Anne about his interests in men when they agreed to add him to play time and she thought he couldn't be more perfect. Harry was honestly and would be the perfect teacher in this field. So who better than Harry, the attractive and smooth talking man with the flirty vocabulary, to help her boyfriends fulfill her perverted fantasies of seeing them together? Harry smoothed out their worries and reassured them that he was there to help them to figure it out. After a talk, neither Zayn or Liam were comfortable with bottoming and felt like they preferred being on top, Harry didn't mind it either way. 

Zayn was more accepting of this and didn't take long, Liam needed more convincing, but he got with the program eventually. Harry had to work overtime with Liam because his hyper masculinity and Liam let him know that he didn't like the idea of it. Which was fine. No one would make him and Leigh-Anne promised not to make him do it by gunpoint no matter how much she wanted to see Liam at Zayn or Harry's mercy and vice versa. However Liam had liked it and he shocked himself with the revelation, he thought he would be slightly repulsed with himself and Harry for letting it happen, but he wasn't. Harry took everything Liam gave him without any complaint -he actually begged for more- and Liam had liked it. He liked not holding back. He liked it even more when he had his turn with Zayn.

Zayn was a fighter like himself and could withstand twice as much as Harry. And because Zayn was a fighter, he argued with Liam about who would bottom for a week. Liam refused to do it claiming that he would never let anything touch him there that wasn't toilet paper while Zayn wasn't very keen on it. It put them in a tough position and almost led to a game of tic-tac-toe that Liam knew he would lose if they played; he always lost. Luckily for him, Zayn decided to do the favor of bottoming to make things easier, but only if Liam promised to be gentle. If Liam stuck to his promise and Zayn enjoyed it, the next time he would let Liam have his way and be as rough as he wanted. Although, if Liam broke that promise and Zayn hated it or it hurt, Zayn was coming for Liam's ass when he least expected it.

Literally.

Each of them preferred Leigh-Anne but would occasionally treat themselves to one of their boyfriends if they felt like it. It just never left the house. Harry would hold Zayn's hand when they went out, Zayn did mind at first because it was just so new, then he stopped caring because he loved that fool. Plus, why should it matter when he knew he could seriously hurt anyone who dared to make a remark or slur? It happened once, he broke some guys leg and didn't think twice about it. 

Liam wouldn't hold hands, though. He only felt comfortable showing affection to his boyfriends when they were in the bedroom, to which Zayn and Harry understood. But they would grab Liam's hand in places outside their bedroom anyways like how Zayn had him now and tried helping Liam come to terms and see that everything was okay. He, Harry and Leigh-Anne loved him and things were going to be fine. How Liam was still "in the closest" about this befuddled Zayn, they'd been together for years now.

"I'm just not used to it," Liam admitted softly. 

"Well, you've got plenty of time to get used to it," Zayn told him with a gentle smile and kissing his scarlet cheek. "C'mon, let's tell Harry what's up."

_x

"Are you done yet?" Liam groaned pulling at his shirt.

"Yeah, just making sure I'm set," Zayn replied fixing his hair one final time and adjusting himself.

"Zayn, help?" Harry asked with a comb in his hand. "I don't know how she likes it best.."

Zayn nodded looking at his hair and combing it out. There wasn't much he could do it it unless he wanted to wear a manbun or braids.

"It's getting long, you should let Jesy cut it again," Zayn recommended.

"No way, last time I let her cut my hair I looked like Spock!" he protested. "Niall just had to have a girl almost as crazy as Leigh-Anne. He could've been with a normal one but nooo, he just had to pick the deranged one."

"Man, Jesy's cool." Zayn chuckled, parting Harry's hair on the side and combing it. He wasn't sure how Leigh-Anne liked Harry's hair but Zayn liked Harry's hair like this, it suited him and it's new length. "Done."

"Thanks." Harry quickly kissing Zayn's smooth cheek and grinned. "Leigh's gonna be upset that you shaved your face," Harry pointed out. 

Zayn shrugged with a smirk, his eyes going over towards Liam. "Leigh loves these cheekbones though, and it'll all grow back in like, three days. She'll have enough facial hair to love with Liam until then."

"Not this shit again," Liam muttered touching up his said facial hair and making sure it was all lined up properly.

"It's from all of that pussy you've been eating lately," Zayn teased, and Harry snickered along.

Liam's mouth had been working overtime the past few weeks persistently trying to get Leigh-Anne to agree to them having a baby. 

It wasn't working.

But Leigh-Anne was loving waking up to breakfast and head in the morning on Liam's sex days.

"And here I thought I had the best tongue skills," Harry added.

"Oh, you do," Liam reassured, looking at himself from side to side, making sure he didn't miss anything. "But only when you're sucking dick."

"He's got a point," Zayn agreed. He was laughing before Harry cupped him in his hand and all of his guffawing ceased.

"Definitely not sucking your dick later," Harry reminded him, letting his manhood go.

"So mine is up for a good suck?" Liam asked from his position after deciding he looked perfect.

"Nope, this mouth is closed for business... How is she still asleep? It's been hours."

"It's the power of drugs," Zayn answered simply, checking over Liam and Harry, the latter gasping. 

"She's going to be pissed when she finds out you drugged her."

"Leigh needed to sleep, so I made sure she did."

"By drugging her."

Zayn rolled his eyes until they landed on Harry. "Sleep is sleep, alright?"

"A drug induced sleep is-"

"Is what I'm going to do to you if you don't shut the hell up," Zayn threatened. 

"Stop it," Liam muttered, stepping between the two of them, he didn't need them arguing. "Can we wake her up now?"

Zayn nodded and the three of them went into the room where their girlfriend laid. The only movements she made were the steady rise and fall of her chest and the occasional creasing of her brow from something she didn't like in her dream. 

"Leigh," Harry cooed, rubbing her thigh. "Wake up.."

"That's not going to work." Zayn snorted. "Liam? Care to do the honors?"

"And have her mad at me because I tried to give her shaken baby syndrome? I'll pass," Liam replied with his hands held up.

"I swear the two of you are useless," Zayn said under his breath. He lightly tapped Leigh-Anne's face before pinching her nose shut and watching her struggle.

"So he's going to suffocate her," Harry whispered to Liam. "How can she love him when he drugs and suffocates her?"

"The same way we love you when you do weird shit that we don't understand," Liam whispered back.

Leigh-Anne's hand shot up and grabbed Zayn by the throat and started squeezing, she was ready to kill whoever it was cutting off her air supply until she opened her eyes to see her boyfriend. 

Zayn released her nose and she released his throat at the same time.

"That's why I wasn't going to wake her up," Liam told Harry. 

"Smart," Harry replied quickly.

"What's going on? Why were you trying to kill me?" she asked slowly, looking between her boyfriends, noting Zayn's freshly shaven face.

"I was trying to wake you up," Zayn told her, rubbing his neck.

"And calling my name wasn't good enough?" she wondered, her eyebrow arched in confusion. Though that was still better than the time Harry started to sing Barney to wake her up. She woke up so annoyed she almost punched out their window, he knew how she felt about that purple dinosaur.

"It wasn't going to work."

"And why wouldn't it?" She didn't believe that Zayn would try to kill her, none of them would, but... "Trying to suffocate me is extreme. Is there some vendetta you all have against me that I don't know about?" She did make them do a lot of things they didn't want to, so a grudge wouldn't surprise her. 

"Besides the fact that we have assigned days to have sex with you?" Harry wondered and was elbowed roughly by Liam who told him to stop being an idiot for a one second.

"Besides that one," Leigh-Anne said, rolling her eyes. "I do that for your safety. I'd hate for one of you to OD off this good pussy."

"Atleast we'd die happy," Harry mumbled and was slapped upside the head by Zayn. "Alright, the two of you are gonna fucking quit hitting me!" Harry demanded as he cradled his head with one hand. "Just because I don't spend hours in the basement working out doesn't mean I won't kick your ass!"

Zayn and Liam looked at each other before bursting out into laughter. 

"Don't block with your face!" they said in unison.

"I don't block with my face!" Harry yelled back.

"Then explain the time you leaned into Logan's fist?" Zayn demanded. "You leaned in so hard, that the impact made me flinch! Me!"

Harry let out a frustrated growl. Dammit, he knew he wasn't the best fighter in their house, but he was smart and that counted for something. 

Leigh-Anne looked on in confusion. She just wanted to know why the three of them felt it was necessary to wake her up from a good dream. Zayn, Harry, and Liam continued to bicker back and forth debating whether Harry leaned in to get punched in the face for another minute before Leigh-Anne had become fed up and cleared her throat.

"And you three woke me up because?" she asked when the trio stopped talking and turned their attention back to her.

"Because you've been working nonstop," Zayn said first, giving her a concerned smile.

"And we think you need to relax," Liam added, his own smile very earnest.

"So Zayn drugged you so you could actually get some sleep," Harry tattled and Zayn swiftly hit him in the crotch. "But the rest of the day is up to you," Harry finished saying, his voice was higher and cracked from the damage below the waist. 

"Aww," Leigh-Anne cooed. She had great boyfriends. "That's very sweet of you guys. But I'm fine, really."

"You're losing weight," Zayn pointed out. 

Leigh-Anne looked down at her legs and shrugged. "I was thinking about going on a diet anyways."

"What the hell for?" Liam asked, shocked. It would destroy him if she lost her figure. For her height, her weight was perfect and was distributed flawlessly around her body. She was at a healthy weight.

Leigh-Anne shrugged again. 

Harry squinted his eyes at her and then snorted. 

"She's lying."

"No, I'm not," Leigh-Anne told him easily.

Harry grinned. "Yes, you are. You're lying like how Zayn says he's never going to eat bacon again."

"I told you it's complicated," Zayn muttered, pushing Harry so he'd lose his balance and fall into Liam. He already hated himself enough for letting Liam talk him into eating pork when he'd gone the majority of his life without it. It was disgustingly delicious and he hated that he enjoyed it's flavor so much, he always had to escape and repent immediately after. He knew that hives he broke out in was Allah's way of punishing him.

'I'm in love with three idiots,' Leigh-Anne thought to herself. 

"Okay, stop picking on Harry," she demanded in a motherly voice to get them in line.

"So the rest of the day is whatever you want to do," Liam said, trying to keep Harry steady when he wobbled. "We can have sex."

She gave him a look that let him know that he would be wearing another condom if they did.

"Or we can smoke," added Zayn. "Louis said he just got in contact with this guy from Cuba."

"But Louis' also a fucking liar," she replied. "The last time he brought something over and it was brown as fuck and we ended up smoking all of my sour and haze." 

"True." Zayn shrugged. That was a good day.

"We can have a party!" Harry suggested excitedly. "But if you want to have sex, I'd like to remind you that it's my night."

"We can have a movie night? We haven't watched your favorites in awhile," Zayn offered.

"We could go paint balling?" Liam threw in.

"A vacation somewhere?" Harry added.

"But I want to work," Leigh-Anne argued. "I'm on the brink of a breakthrough that I can feel it!"

"You're not working, Leigh," Harry told her firmly.

"What about Kal?" she asked.

"Depends on what you want to do. I talked to Perrie and she said her and Louis can watch him if we needed them to," Zayn explained.

"Guys, really, I'm fine," she said trying to convince them with a weak smile.

Admittedly, yes, she had forgotten to eat for a few days, but she was getting so close to finding a lead; and after she found a lead she had planned to gorge herself to the brim. 

Three pairs of eyes exchanged looks and all silently agreed. 

"So we'll have a party, smoke, and then have sex," Harry announced for the group.

"Sounds good," Liam agreed with a nod. 

"We can always do paint balling tomorrow afternoon and still have a movie night," added Zayn. Paintballing was starting to sound really fun when Harry was starting to irritate him.

"So we're all set then?" Liam asked.

"Yeah, except the fact that Harry can't smoke because he starts tweaking," Leigh-Anne said and laughed into her hand.

"What does that even mean?" Harry asked turning to Liam to translate.

Liam shook his head and tried to stop the smile that was forming and the loud laugh that would follow by biting down hard on his bottom lip.

"Okay. Remember the last time the four of us threw a party, a big one, and all of us smoked together and you were like, 'I can't feel my face!' and whining because Zayn wouldn't trade you an eyeball?"

Mind you, Harry couldn't feel his face, so at that time, an eyeball transplant seemed like the right thing to get. Plus Zayn's eyes secretly made him a little jealous, so why couldn't he have both? A pretty hazel eye and a sparkling green one? 

Harry scoffed and clicked his tongue. 

"I wouldn't have acted that way if someone hadn't laced my blunt with cocaine!" the youngest said accusingly.

"Man, I thought I was helping!" Zayn replied, feeling an argument coming on. He had already apologized for it multiple times already, Harry needed to let it go. "I thought you could handle it!"

"You should know I would never lace my blunt with cocaine!" Harry yelled, his eyes narrowing at Zayn. "I like sticking with the tradition of snorting barcodes!"

"Can we not talk about cocaine this loudly?" Liam cut in and asked before Zayn could reply and add more fuel to the fire. "Kal is literally in the next room." Kailum was in his room, drawing something in his sketchbook the last time Liam had checked.

Harry hmphed and turned away from his boyfriends. "So a party?" he asked his girlfriend.

"Maybe we should just...I don't know, go to out to eat or something? Just to get out of the house?" she suggested. "Our parties get so wild sometimes and I always hate cleaning up afterwards," she complained rubbing the back of her neck.

"We'll clean up," Zayn replied, gesturing to himself, Harry, and Liam. "We'll take care of it."

"What's with this 'we' shit?" Harry asked, still feeling argumentative. "You always find a way to get out of cleaning up with some bullshit excuse about your back."

Zayn clicked his own tongue in irritation and clenched his jaw. He didn't want to argue! 

"Well if your mother didn't beg for this dic-"

"Enough!" Leigh-Anne yelled. "Goddammit..." She sighed and the three males hung their heads in shame; she heard Liam mumble a, 'I didn't even do anything.' "The three of you can have a party and I'll take Kal to ChuckECheese or something."

"But it won't be a party if you're not here," Harry said softly. He was a party guy so he knew what he was talking about. Leigh-Anne was the party. She made things so much more fun and most of the time, she didn't do anything but smoke, drink, sing and dance around. His girlfriend knew how to throw a good party and without her everything would be boring. Plus he doubted he would be able to survive Liam and Zayn without her today.

"Yeah, and I'm sure Lou and Perrie are itching to come over," Zayn added. "Louis told me that Perrie's starting to think that you don't fuck with her for whatever reason."

Leigh-Anne sighed and rolled her eyes. "Because I haven't called her in a few days."

"Why?" Zayn was curious. Leigh-Anne was very good at calling people back. Was it something Perrie said or did? Because Louis was an old friend of his and when Louis mentioned to him how weird Perrie had been acting lately, it worried him.

"Can we not? Not right now?" she asked. "Perrie knows she's my left." And Jesy was her right.

"I thought I was your left?" Liam pipped up.

"Are you a woman?" Leigh-Anne asked rhetorically. 

"Fair enough... But I'm your left for the guys, right?" he wondered.

She gave him a blank stare and blinked. "Yeah, Liam. You're my guy left."

"Wait...but if he's your guy left.." Harry looked at Zayn. "Do the two of us fight for the guy right?"

Zayn snorted because Harry would never win that fight, and Leigh-Anne groaned. 

"Can we please wait until the end of this conversation to ask stupid questions?" she asked.

There were three nods.

"Good. I'll call my mom to watch Kal," she said, and Harry whispered 'yes!' knowing that they would be partying in a few hours. "Ah ah ah!" Leigh-Anne tutted and smirked at Harry. "I'm inviting Jade."

"But, why?" Harry whined. "She blows my high every time!" Jade was a buzz kill and he never enjoyed her presence. He only played nice with her for Leigh-Anne's sake.

"Yeah, mine too," Liam agreed sheepishly. 

Zayn shrugged. He didn't pay Jade that much attention to let her blow his high. Not many things could blow his high to begin with, he'd be too high for that to even happen.

"Because she's my friend," Leigh-Anne said innocently. "And she loves hanging out with you guys. Especially Liam," she teased. "And if you're going invite anyone else that isn't apart from our norm, it'll be good for her." Jade seriously needed a man in her life or at least someone to mess around with.

"Wait," Zayn interjected. "Is it a party or a kickback?"

Leigh-Anne hummed. "Kickback? There's always less to clean up when we have a kickback?"

"I wanted to invite -"

"If it isn't Ed, it's a no," she replied to Harry. "I hate all of your 'friends' except Niall and Ed."

"You only like Niall because he's with Jesy."

Leigh-Anne shrugged. "You're right, but Niall's not too bad."

"What about the punksters?" Harry asked, Leigh-Anne knew who he was referring to.

"Maybe not, Luke wanted to rub on my butt last time, remember?"

"The kid was so drunk," Liam said. He smiled while shaking his head. "You should've let him."

"Yep, just how you're going to let Jade sit on your lap again."

"No, I could feel her butt bones! She has zero ass." Liam laughed. "It was kinda painful because they're so sharp."

"Hey! Jade has a butt, it's just small," Leigh-Anne said in Jade's defense. "They're like little cupcakes and she loves sitting on you," she muttered after tugging on his shirt to pull him close.

Liam stopped himself from shuddering from her aggressiveness. "Really?"

"Mmhmm," she answered. "And if it's because of the same reason I use, then I really can't blame her."

Leigh-Anne leaned in to whisper something dirty in Liam's ear, something along the lines of her mouth sucking on big things, when Harry's chuckle ruined it for her. She wore a frown knowing what Harry probably said about Jade and laughed when she looked at Zayn and shook her head.

"Kickback it is," she announced, lightly pushing Liam away. "Harry, call Niall and I'll call Jade and my mom while we clean up. Zayn, you call Louis. Liam, move the couches into a triangle," Leigh-Anne instructed, her hands forming a triangle before she clapped them. "Come on, let's go!"

_x

"Jes, no! Wait til everyone gets here!" Niall hollered at his girlfriend, patting her leg and gently pulling her up and away from the table. "And slow down. Fuck, ya scare me when ya go too fast!"

Jesy sniffed and wiped her nose. "Sorry, but you know I've been stressed," she cooed, rubbing his leg back. "Who are we waiting for anyway?" she asked, flipping her long hair over her shoulder and looking around. "Looks like everyone's here."

"We're waiting for Jade," Leigh-Anne answered from her seat on Zayn's lap. "And the food."

"Why are you even friends with her? She's so weird," Perrie commented, straightening up her own line of blow. 

"Jade's cool," Leigh-Anne replied, starting to roll another joint. "She's normal."

Harry scoffed. "She's annoying as fuck and you need to cut her off," he advised. He wished she would just listen to him when he told her this all the time.

"But Jade's-"

"Leigh, that bitch is weak," Jesy interrupted. "She can't hang."

Leigh-Anne sighed. She liked Jade because she was normal. The rest of their friends weren't normal, and Leigh-Anne knew that her boyfriends definitely weren't normal. Jade was innocent in her own way, and Leigh-Anne wanted to believe that innocence still existed in adults, not just children.

"Well, if Jesy said it," Liam muttered.

"Liam, shut up. She's probably getting pretty just for you," Leigh-Anne teased and everyone snickered along. No secret to them about Jade's feelings for the veteran. The doorbell rang and everyone laughed harder while Leigh-Anne smirked and got off of Zayn's lap. 

"I bet she's wearing heels," Harry whispered to the group before Leigh-Anne opened the door.

"Sorry I'm late. I couldn't find anything to wear so..." Jade trailed off awkwardly, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"It's fine." Leigh-Anne smiled at her and stepped aside to let Jade in. "All of us wore sweats and shorts anyways, except Harry because he lives in tight jeans." 

Jade looked around at everyone and true, they looked very comfortable while she, felt very uncomfortable; she was always the outsider whenever Leigh-Anne invited her over for a party. The last time she came over everyone was dressed up and she hadn't. This time, when she had dressed up, everyone was dressed down. She could hardly keep up with their conversations, she didn't do drugs, and she couldn't hold her liquor to save her life. She was always the odd man out.

"I see," she mumbled, keeping her sight on the floor, feeling everyones scrutinizing eyes on her. 

Jade hated how she couldn't quite fit in with Leigh-Anne and her entourage. She wanted to be apart of their group so badly and for the strangest reason she couldn't explain why. Maybe it was because they all had this attitude of not giving a fuck and she liked that? Or maybe it was because all of them had a presence that you could feel from anywhere and she didn't have one at all? Whatever it was that kept her drawn to them was probably bad but Jade still wanted in on it.

Leigh-Anne gently looped her arm with Jade's and smiled. "You guys can start with out us. We'll be right back," she told them, pulling Jade along after starting the playlist she made before Perrie and Louis arrived first.

Zayn gave her an upwards nod lighting up one of the many joints they had rolled. Liam furrowed his brows and Harry rolled his eyes, not caring that Jade was there and wishing Leigh-Anne would just take her home; Jade didn't belong there. Perrie shrugged and looked at Louis who shrugged back, and Jesy wasted no time putting her nose back to her line making Niall sigh and shake his head.

Harry whispered something to the group that earned a few chuckles, and before Jade and Leigh-Anne had made it completely out of hearing range, Jade heard someone whisper back, "Leigh's new charity case," and bit her lip insecurely.

Everyone laughed, but no one denied it.

"Is black okay? Or did you want to wear these blue ones?" Leigh-Anne offered throwing the sweatpants on the bed towards Jade. "The black ones are really baggy, but the blue ones are super soft," she explained, pulling out a few matching t-shirts that she was certain were either Zayn's or Harry's.

Jade hardly payed attention as Leigh-Anne rambled about how the clothes felt and how long is been since she'd thrown a get together. Leigh-Anne's chatter turned into a distant buzzing until it completely faded out and the only words Jade could hear were: "new charity case." Those three words were zipping around her brain looking for a way out, that way she could stop overanalyzing what they meant by that. And she knew exactly what they meant by it.

"Jade?" Leigh-Anne asked, turning away from her dresser as their doorbell rang. "Look, I made everyone wait for you to get here before we started. Just pick one." 

Leigh-Anne noticed that Jade wasn't listening to her. She had heard what Louis said about Jade being her new chartiy case, didn't think much of it; Louis was known to say dickheaded things like that; he was a dick. She wasn't sure if Jade had heard it too but apparently she did, it was said so lowly that if Leigh-Anne wasn't so used picking up whispers, she wouldn't have caught it. 

"Yeah. I'll be down in a second?" Jade said after Leigh-Anne crossed her arms and sighed impatiently. She didn't want to annoy Leigh-Anne by not replying, Jade didn't like how Leigh-Anne acted when she was annoyed. 

"Alright." Leigh-Anne headed towards the door and stopped to look at all of the spots in the room that had something Jade really didn't need to find. The younger woman was extremely nosy and Leigh-Anne normally didn't leave her alone in any room of their house besides the bathroom...and there was a gun in there, too. But Leigh-Anne trusted Jade not to snoop this time, she was too absorbed in thought to snoop.

The doorbell rang again and Leigh-Anne groaned loudly knowing that it had to be the food they ordered. "Why isn't someone answering the door? Do I have to do everything around here?!" she complained and started on her way downstairs.

Jade sighed and rubbed her temples as she thought about coming up with an excuse so she didn't have to stay. She liked being around Leigh-Anne, that was her best friend, however she wouldn't be able to handle all of her friends being there judging her. But if she suddenly decided to leave, they'd probably think she wasn't cool. Jade groaned to herself. They were all adults, she needed to stop caring about what they thought of her and just change already.

Leigh-Anne complained about being unappreciated on her way down the stairs. Someone could answer the door and just pay the guy delivering over $100 worth of pizza, wings, fries, and steak subs. If they wanted to act like they weren't hungry, fine. She'd get what she wanted, something for Jade and drop off the rest at the local shelter, atleast they'd be grateful. 

"Why didn't one of you answer the door?" she asked, pointing at each of her boyfriends. 

Harry stopped talking to Perrie and gestured to their table of illegal substances, making Leigh-Anne suck her teeth.

"It's not like you were going to invite him in!" she snapped, pulling bills out of her bra and opening the door. "Sorry about that," she apologized, then smiled at him.

The guy's face instantly went from annoyed to amused seeing how much cleavage Leigh-Anne was showing in her cami. "It's no problem," he replied as she tried grabbing the boxes and bags from him. "Do you need help? I can bring it in-"

"No, I have three boyfriends for that," she denied easily. "Liam!" she yelled over her shoulder.

The delivery guy's mouth dropped opened. "Three?" 

She gave him a nod and Liam hopped over the back of the couch and appeared behind her, taking the boxes of pizza from her slipping hold on them. 

"Thanks," she told Liam as he carried the boxes into the kitchen. "And for you," she spoke to the delivery guy who watched Liam until he disappeared from sight, trying to hand over the money and his tip.

"Yeah, thanks?" he muttered, quickly counting and pocketing the bills. He smirked when his nose caught the smell of weed in the air. "Hey, if you need-"

"No, thanks," Leigh-Anne interrupted, abruptly shutting the door in his face and going to towards the kitchen with the bags.

"Just say it!" Louis yelled from his seat. 

"Don't say that shit," Zayn warned, taking another hit of the spliff in his hand.

"Say what?" Leigh-Anne asked loudly from behind the kitchen counter. Liam snickered behind her as he opened one of the boxes, grabbed two slices out and headed back towards his seat. "Say what, Harry?"

Harry looked at Zayn and the ravenette shook his head. 

"I'm in love with the coco!" Harry yelled, making everyone except Zayn laugh.

"You're so embarrassing." Zayn groaned and took another hit.

Harry shrugged, accepting the slice Liam was handing him. "Baking soda! I got baking soda!"

Jade had been coming down the stairs when everyone started laughing and hoped that weren't still laughing at her and stopped. She'd gone with the blue sweats and a blue and black T-shirt Leigh-Anne had pulled out, she left her heels in the room and opted for a pair of Leigh-Anne's clean socks she found. 'I can do this,' she thought taking a deep breath and continuing back down the stairs.

"Whoo! Look at the flick of the wrist!" Harry yelled and made Zayn contemplate what to throw at him. 

Why couldn't he just chill out? Did Harry even know that those were two different songs? They hadn't even gotten to the trap music part of Leigh's playlist yet and he was acting out.

Jade scanned the room and found Leigh-Anne in the kitchen by herself making a plate pull of chicken wings and pizza and nervously walked over to her side.

"Hungry?" Leigh-Anne asked. 

"A little," Jade answered warily, observing how Jesy and Perrie had started a snorting contest. 

Leigh-Anne studied Jade from the corner of her eye. She could tell Jade wanted to ask her something when she began pulling on the bottom of her shirt.

"What's up? Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't know what to, like, do," Jade explained, watching Niall and Liam clutch their bottles securely.

"You know you don't have to participate, right?" Leigh-Anne had never forced Jade to do anything during her parties. She liked that Jade refrained from dabbling in their buffet of drugs and only had a cup of something that was more juice than alcohol. 

"I know but," Jade bit her lip, "I want to."

Jade wanted to be apart of that. She wanted to be where Perrie was, having her arm held up by Harry being declared the winner and having Jesy argue with her about how thick or thin their lines were. She wanted to play a drinking contest with Liam and see if she could take more shots than Niall. She wanted to blow smoke rings and see if she could blow more than Zayn. She wanted to see if she could take a hit and hold her breath longer than Louis. She wanted that. 

"Then do it," Leigh-Anne challenged. "You know you'll be safe," she added, just in case Jade thought something would happen while she was under the influence; Leigh-Anne wouldn't let something happen to Jade while she was around.

Jade nodded and put together a small plate of her own and nervously walked with Leigh-Anne back to the couches. The hostess placed the plate down on the table and rewrapped herself around Zayn, plucking the blunt between his lips and finally taking her first hit. Jade sat timidly between Liam and Niall on the drinkers couch and started working on her food. If she ate first and then got drunk she wouldn't throw up, right? If she ate and then smoked, would she be hungry again? What would happen if she ate, then smoked, then drank? She didn't want to feel sick and Jade wasn't sure she wanted to ski down snow mountain just yet and wanted to avoid it for now. 

Liam laughed loudly at something Jesy had said and accidentally bumped Jade with his elbow. It made her turn and look at him, then Zayn, then Harry; then Jesy as she rubbed Niall's leg gently and Perrie when she kissed Louis' cheek.

God she was lonely.

Being single didn't seem to bother her until she was surrounded by her polyamorous friend and her three boyfriends. Three! How? Just how?? Jade couldn't see herself with more than one boyfriend. Actually, she currently couldn't get one boyfriend to even dream about having two. She had never been single this long, what was she doing wrong? Was she-

"Oops, sorry," Liam apologized. The grin on his face told her that he was definitely tipsy, as he should be when there was no more than eight ounces left in his bottle. "Drink?" he asked, offering the bottle to her.

Liam knew she wasn't a drinker, but there was hardly anything left in the bottle and he was going to get up and get another anyways.

Jade hesitated. The cups were in the kitchen and she had forgotten to grab one, was Liam going to get her a cup or was he expecting her to drink straight from the bottle like he had?

She guessed straight from the bottle when his eyes had crinkled in the corners from smiling so hard that she couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not.

"Thanks," she told him, gripping the bottle by its neck and placing it on the floor.

"Aren't you going to drink it?" Liam asked, nudging her on purpose this time.

"Yeah, after I finished eating," Jade replied though she didn't have much left on her plate. She was either hungrier than she thought, or she ate more when paying attention to everyone else in the room and envying them.

"I'll help," Liam offered. He reached into the plate on her lap, grabbed a chicken wing and took a big bite from it.

Jade gasped. Not because he'd stolen the chicken wing that was glistening with sauce that she had been eyeing, but because his finger accidentally touched her upper thigh.

Yeah. Definitely lonely.

Liam hadn't even noticed that he'd touched her.

"All gone." Liam put the clean bone back on her plate and grinned at her. He was definitely tipsy and he knew it, he had to be tipsy if he was smiling at Jade and wanting to touch her hair; it looked really soft today.

Jade smiled back awkwardly and placed her plate on the table before grabbing the bottle again and putting it between her legs. It was big. She thought it was too big, actually, and that Liam should probably get checked for alcohol poisoning or something for being able to drink that much of it and only come out tipsy; she was jealous of his tolerance. Her hand roamed over the side of the cool glass and slowly rubbed it up and down, twisting when she got closer to the top. Honesty, how did he manage to drink that much? She could never.

"Don't touch the bottle like that," Liam muttered, looking away from Jade. "It's disrespectful," he added.

"What?" Jade didn't think she was touching the bottle in any way that would be considered impolite. It was a bottle and she was only admiring its size.

Liam sighed and laid his warm cassousled hand over Jade's smaller one to stop it from moving.

"Don't jerk off the bottle."

Jade gasped from the contact again. "Oh." She averted her eyes from Liam's and turned her head to look at Jesy when she laughed, trying to hide her reddening cheeks. His hand was still on hers and she knew she was overanalyzing the situation like she did with everything else. He was in a relationship with her best friend, but she couldn't help but think that maybe Liam knew what he was doing to her when he touched her. She hoped he did.

"Shut up, Niall!" Perrie told him playfully. "You couldn't out run anyone here, not even Jade in her heels."

"Yeah, I could!" the Irishmen replied passionately. "I could out run any one of ya anytime, anywhere!" he slurred and Jesy couldn't help but roll her eyes at her boyfriend. Drunk already and talking shit, but she wouldn't have him any other way.

"You're not running anywhere with that prosthetic leg of yours, Horan," Harry joked and maybe Jade had missed something because she didn't know Niall had a prosthetic leg.

"Ha ha," Niall replied sarcastically. "Fuck you, Harry! I don't have a prosthetic leg, I had surgery on me knee. Me knee, not me leg," he stressed. "So you can stop it with the prosthetic jokes."

Oh...okay, so he didn't have a prosthetic leg. Jade was glad he cleared that up before she intervened and said how she knew someone who made great prosthetics and embarrassed herself.

"Never, they're just too funny," Harry replied and put his face back down to snort another line.

Atleast that was the plan before he felt a hand grab a fistful of his hair and painfully yank his head back.

"Cut it with the leg jokes." Jesy scowled at him and tugged on his hair. "Or I'm cutting this off," she threatened. 

"That'll be great," Zayn pipped up. "He was just telling me how he wanted you to cut his hair," he lied smoothly.

Jesy grinned at Zayn. "Perfect, I was thinking about-"

"No, thanks," Harry declined, gently slapping Jesy's hands so she would let his hair go. "I want to grow it out like Steven Tyler so I won't be needing it cut."

"Eww, his hair always looks dirty," Perrie added when she finished a line and laid back on the couch, letting her high taking over.

"Then what's the difference? Harry's hair always looks oily and stringy," Louis quipped before taking a drag of his joint.

"Louis, you shit," Harry replied. "Atleast my hair doesn't make me look homeless."

Everyone laughed and Louis rolled his eyes. "Yes, I call it 'Hobo Chic' and judging by your scuffed boots, you've been picking up on my trend."

"Clearly you haven't seen my new boots." Harry scoffed. Zayn had burned the pair Louis was talking about and Harry went and bought sparkling gold ones in their place.

"It's okay, I like your boots, Harry," Leigh-Anne lied.

"Don't listen to her, no one likes those damn boots," Liam snitched immediately. "Right Jade?" he asked, bumping his knee against hers forcing her heart into her throat.

"Um.." She didn't have much of an opinion on Harry's footwear. But Harry would be upset if she said she didn't like them, right? She took a swallow from the bottle between her legs and answered, "I like Harry's boots."

"Thank you! Atleast someone in here has some taste," Harry said triumphantly. He almost liked Jade a little bit more...but not really.

"She had to drink before answering and she only said it because she knows you're sensitive when it comes to your shitty boots," Jesy pointed out. "If you would just let Leigh dress you we wouldn't be having this conversation."

It was true and everyone fell into separate conversations after that. Niall talked around Jade to Liam about maybe playing beer pong in the basement after they ate. Perrie, Jesy and Leigh-Anne chatted about having a big shopping trip soon; Jade felt excluded when they didn't mention her coming with them; she included herself into their conversation anyways, the alcohol had already started to take over. Harry had closed his eyes and relaxed himself to the point where he felt like he couldn't tell his body apart from the couch. Zayn, bless his heart, was almost asleep.

"Zayn, what is this?" Louis asked suddenly, helping Zayn regain consciousness. Louis looked at his blunt, rolled it between his fingers and took another hit. He blew out the smoke and laughed. "Smoke screen, baby! It's green only nig!"

The group of friends that were either high or drunk stopped their conversations and sobered up quickly. They didn't just hear that. Louis didn't say what they think he just said. Maybe all of them needed to put the drugs and alcohol away because he didn't just say that. Of all things, he didn't just say THAT and with Leigh-Anne around? 

"Why are all of you looking at me like that?" Louis asked nervously. He pulled on his t-shirt, he thought it was clinging to his skin since he'd started to sweat, and glanced over at his girlfriend. Perrie immediately broke eye contact and looked down, ashamed because he was her boyfriend and never once did she think he'd say something like that. She couldn't defend him from whatever happened next.

How could she? Sure they were friends and all but everyone knew how Leigh-Anne was about certain things. This was one of those things. All eyes were on Louis in pure disbelief before they looked over to Leigh-Anne, waiting for her volatile reaction.

Leigh-Anne looked at Louis. He wasn't her friend, he was Zayn's, and if she wasn't high and in a good mood because they were getting to her favorite part of her playlist, she'd make sure something terrible happened to him. Unfortunately, she would have to deal with how upset Perrie and Zayn would be. Perrie would get over it eventually, Leigh-Anne could find someone else to be her friends beau. What would Perrie want with a guy who would blatantly disrespect her best friend like that, anyways? Louis was Zayn's friend from high school and she knew how tight their friendship was. Zayn would tell her about Louis whenever the two of them skipped class together; he had stories for days. She couldn't just handle Louis the way she wanted to without Zayn knowing.

Zayn had to handle this one.

Leigh-Anne nudged Zayn and he leaned his head towards her, his own eyes still glued to his friend. He was disappointed with him. He couldn't control what came out of Louis' mouth, they were adults and he had expected Louis to know better. If he was ever going to say something like that again around them, he was better off cutting out his tongue. 

Leigh-Anne whispered in Zayn's ear and he tore his eyes from Louis and looked at her instead, his eyes boring into hers because of what she just told him to do. 

She couldn't be serious? Yeah what Louis just said was racist but-

The pointed look she gave Zayn meant what she said wasn't up for debate. Either he handled it or she would, and if she did, Louis wouldn't be breathing or walking the right way when he and Perrie left their house.

Zayn sighed and shook his head. He just wanted to get high in peace, eat and then pass out.

"Louis?" the ravenette asked, standing from the couch and stretching, his shirt rising up enough to show the hem of his boxers and make Harry lick his lips. Zayn clapped Louis' shoulder when he didn't say anything. "Let's have a talk, yeah?"

"S-sure?" Louis stuttered, standing up and allowing Zayn to usher him towards their garage. He wasn't afraid of Zayn. No, not at all. Zayn was his friend, his pal, his bro. It was Leigh-Anne he was afraid of whether or not he liked to admit it, and the clouded look in her eye and the tiniest of smirks on her lips left him wanting to shit himself.

Jade drummed her fingers on the bottle anxiously before taking another swing of it. She normally didn't see the violent side of Leigh-Anne and her men, but there wasn't any doubt in her mind that it was there. Jade knew Leigh-Anne was off, -like, c'mon, there was brick of cocaine sitting right there on the table!- she just didn't know how off. 

"Leigh?" Jesy whistled sharply and Leigh-Anne titled her head in Jesy's direction.

"Sup?"

"Kitchen?" Jesy suggested. She needed to talk to her about something too. It was bugging her and her curly haired best friend was the only person she knew who could give her an answer.

Leigh-Anne nodded and grabbed the lighter and another blunt on the table. She lit the spliff and blew the smoke in Liam's face when she passed him. He fanned it away and it made Jade cough when she accidentally inhaled it.

"Sorry," Liam apologized. He hesitated before asking her if she wanted to try it. 

"Smoking?" It wouldn't be to hard, she tried to smoke a cigarette once back in high school during exams week; she thought it would help her calm down. And she did say that she wanted to assimilate into their clique...

"Yeah." Liam grabbed a lighter coupled with a blunt and lit it, taking a long enough hit to keep it burning. He exhaled through his nose and it reminded Jade of a dragon. "Here." He carefully handed it to her and Jade stated at it while Harry was discretely watching her. 

Jade took a deep breath and told herself she would be alright and to just live for a second. A little weed never hurt anybody and if she didn't like it, she wouldn't do it again. She wrapped her lips around he end of the joint like Liam had and inhaled quickly, coughing violently when the smoke unexpectedly flooded her lungs.

Liam chuckled and patted her back. "I should've told you to inhale slowly."

She smiled sheepishly as she tried to regain her composure. It would've been nice if he would've warned her. Jade tried it again anyways, inhaling slowly the way she should have done the first time. It felt weird. But not bad.

"Hold it," Liam told her and she nodded. Liam mentally counted to five before telling her to exhale. "Not bad, right?"

"No." Jade shook her head and grinned. "Not bad." She brought the joint back to her lips and took a long, slow drag, this smoking this was pretty easy.

Harry smirked. It was going to be entertaining to watch Jade freak out, she was taking pretty big hits for her first time.

"You want to what?" Leigh-Anne asked bluntly, though she had heard what Jesy had said. She poured herself some Pepsi in a signature red plastic cup and sipped it, looking at Jesy over the rim of it, the joint between her fingers like a cigarette and burning away.

Jey groaned. "Not me, Niall. Niall wants to," she said unsurely.

Leigh-Anne put her cup down on the counter and looked at the Irishmen on the couch saying something to Harry that she couldn't make out, his words were too slurred and his accent was too thick.

"So what's the problem? Either you want to or you don't." She took a hit and exhaled upwards.

"But he wants a girl, Leigh," Jesy began to explain. 

"So you don't want to have a threesome? I'm confused," Leigh-Anne admitted.

Jesy had started telling her that a month ago Niall slyly brought up the idea of them having a threesome. At first, Jesy had laughed it off, Niall was drunk and they were about to start foreplay, she didn't take him seriously. Then he brought it up again, and this time he was sober and she told him she would think about it. If Jesy was being honest, she liked the idea of a threesome with two guys. Leigh-Anne really seemed to enjoy double the fun and Jesy didn't see a reason why she wouldn't as well. Then Niall mentioned another woman.

"I don't want to share him with another woman," Jesy told her. She shook her head and glanced at her boyfriend. She loved him alot but sharing him wasn't something she could do. What if he liked the other woman better? What if he thought she was prettier than her? 

"Then don't," Leigh-Anne answered. "I don't really see the big deal here, Jes. It's not like you haven't been with a woman before."

Jesy looked at Leigh-Anne and looked away, she didn't like to be reminded of those days. "I know, but I don't want it to change anything."

Leigh-Anne smiled and patted Jesy's arm comfortingly. "If you trust him and he loves you -which he fucking better- it won't. I mean, when Liam came along Zayn was skeptical as hell. He didn't like the idea of sharing me with Liam and he watched Liam and I have sex the first few times before we started having threesomes." And that consisted of her being the main focus because neither of them wanted to go passed kissing and nipple play with each other. 

Threesomes required a large amount of trust between partners and every couple wasn't cut out for it.

"But you guys are together," Jesy whined. "I won't even know this bitch."

Leigh-Anne raised her eyebrow at her friend. That was a red flag. "He's not letting you pick her?" 

"No," Jesy answered and shook her head. "We haven't really talked about it anymore."

What the hell?

Leigh-Anne looked over to the faux blonde and narrowed her eyes at his back, hitting her blunt again. She didn't like the sound of this at all but she wouldn't jump to any conclusions either. 

"Tell him no," Leigh-Anne said decidedly when she turned back to Jesy, passing her the blunt. "Only do it if you want to and tell him that you want to pick the girl. Don't let him choose. He's the one asking YOU for this, not the other way around."

"Yeah, about that," Jesy mumbled unsurely, rubbing her arm and taking a drag herself. "I was wondering if maybe you could..?" Jesy left the question open, smoke billowing out her mouth with every word, hoping her friend would understand.

"Maybe I could...what?" Leigh-Anne pressed on. 

"You know," Jesy insisted, the blunt between her lips once more.

"Oh.." Leigh-Anne mumbled when she caught what Jesy was implying and looked off to the side. "You know I can't. We're not in the bink anymore, Jes, and I have boyfriends now."

"I know, I just thought maybe they'd understand and let me like, borrow you for a night?" Jesy wasn't exactly sure how Leigh-Anne's relationship worked, she only knew that it did. Jesy passed the spliff back.

Leigh-Anne chuckled then took a long drag before saying, "I do what I want." She had been all this time and her boyfriends definitely weren't going to stop her. "But I've got a family and Niall isn't even my type," she said playfully. "That boy wouldn't know what to do with all this ass plus my pussy is like black magic, it might get him hooked and I'd really hate to steal your man, Jes."

Jesy cackled at her friends answer. It was worth a shot, she told herself. She knew Leigh-Anne would say no, but Leigh-Anne was the only one she trusted enough to ask.

"If it counts, I'll help you find someone?" Leigh-Anne offered. "That's if you still want to go through with it?"

"I still have to think about it, but I'll let you know." Jesy pulled Leigh-Anne into a hug before grabbing a plate and started filling it with food. "I'm gonna choke you later for getting me to eat all of these calories."

"I know, I know." Leigh-Anne smiled and saw Zayn re-enter the house. She gave him an upwards nod as she left Jesy to make her plate and walked towards the others and he nodded back slowly, as if he didn't want to. He was upset, she knew it. She sat on the couch after he had rubbed on his leg. He didn't say a word, he only took the joint from fingers, closed his eyes and started smoking what was left.

Louis followed shortly after and with a bloody and busted lip that he was holding. When Perrie had spotted it she got up and went to the bathroom to get him a rag. 

Louis quietly sat down knowing no one would say anything about it and waiting for Perrie to come back. Sometimes he wondered why Zayn listened to Leigh-Anne. This could've been settled without his lip getting busted, though he couldn't argue that he didn't deserve it. After Perrie reappeared, she went into the kitchen to get an icepack to put in the rag. The blonde still had to be seen with him and she wanted to do everything she could to help with the blood and swelling.

"Thanks," Louis told her when she places it on his face. 

Perrie poked his cheek, carded his hair affectionately with her and took her seat back next to Harry, she was ready for another line.

"Leigh-Anne, I owe you an apology," Louis said, looking right at her. "I shouldn't have said that and," he looked at Zayn but his friend kept his eyes closed, "and I got you fucked up. It won't happen again. I'm sorry."

There was silence.

Then there was Jade who burst out laughing and who Harry had started to enjoy because she wasn't so uptight anymore. He thought the weed had done her some good. He still didn't like her though. 

"Damn right you got her fucked up!" Jade yelled. Every part of her body was tingling and she felt like she was floating instead of sitting on a chair. She felt nothing but euphoria, now she understood why people smoked. "Oh! I love this song! Moo-la-lah! Yayo!"

Leigh-Anne smirked, who didn't love this song? And could the timing had been any better?

"Apology accepted," Leigh-Anne replied and kissed Zayn's cheek before standing up again. "Y'all should know me well enough!" she sang loudly.

"Bitch better have my money!" Jade yelled back excitedly.

"Please don't call me on my bluff!" Leigh-Anne shouted back.

_x

"Leigh?" Perrie shook her friends shoulder. "Leigh, your laptop is making noises."

"No." Leigh-Anne groaned tiredly. She heard them, she just wanted to put it off for a little while longer, but it had to be work related and she couldn't ignore it. "Fuck." 

Leigh-Anne blinked open her eyes. She didn't fall asleep, her eyelids just felt extremely heavy. She needed another blunt to chase the tiredness away. Her singing partner however had fallen asleep an hour ago and had been taken to their makeshift infirmary by Liam who had returned looking abashed. She scanned the living room to see Niall and Jesy beside each other, they're heads pressed cutely together, Jesy stroking Niall's hair as he snored. Harry's face was pressed to the table and she rolled her eyes; he had a problem. Zayn had disappeared some time ago, she knew he went to paint. Liam was in the kitchen making another plate and pouring Louis something to drink, she noticed the straw he put in the cup and chortled quietly.

She shook out her limbs, to wake them up. This kickback was exactly what she needed, her guys knew her so well. She would find a way to make it up to them, maybe tonight if she could get everyone out the house though she highly doubted it; Niall didn't look like he wanted to move anytime soon. Leigh-Anne grabbed her laptop from Perrie, the blonde had been checking her email and online shopping, and clicked on a few things.

Several boxes appeared on the screen and her brow furrowed in confusion at the camera feeds she was watching, nothing was happening. She double checked the connection, it was live. Leigh-Anne waited for what was making her system go off, she thought about shutting down her laptop and checking on Zayn and Jade if there wasn't any action in a minute.

Then she seen it in a split second in the camera in the upper left corner.

"Who the fuck are you?" she whispered curiously, squinting at the image. "Their cameras are shit," she swore and the figure disappeared. "Where'd you go?"

Her eyes flitted between the cameras until she found them again. Slowly, she zoomed the camera in and waited for the right moment. Whoever this was seemed to be in a hurry to leave and Leigh-Anne didn't want to miss what could be her only window of opportunity. The figure turned around to check to see if they were being followed and looked right into the camera and Leigh-Anne's finger double tapped her mouse quickly to capture the image.

"Gotcha!" she cheered under her breath. The person walked off into the cameras blind spot but Leigh-Anne didn't care. 

"What'd you get?" Harry asked over her shoulder making her jump and punch his shoulder; she hated when he did that. 

"I don't know yet, some person. Hopefully the database will tell us who," she explained, letting her computer do the work. Thousands of faces flashed on the screen in seconds until it stopped on one attractive fawn skinned woman with wavy brown hair with a list of information on her.

Harry whistled at the sight. "She's hot."

"Don't get too attached, you might have to kill her," she countered. 

"No way, she's too hot," Harry denied. 

"Then I'll have Liam kill her," Leigh-Anne mused.

"Honestly, I'm surprised you aren't plotting to kill Jade after today," came Harry's admission. "You didn't say or do anything when she was feeling Liam up."

Leigh-Anne had wanted to but Jade was so high she probably wouldn't remember what she did and Liam had tried his best to swat away her advancing hands without being mean and hurting her feelings. High Jade had tapped into all of her emotions in the passed few hours, there wasn't one that they didn't witness. Her yelling at Niall when he patted her knee during a joke he made had to be Jade's crowing moment. She went straight off in his face about how she didn't know him like that, how he had a prosthetic leg, and that the only person who had permission to touch her was Liam and that he had no right to lay a finger on her. None of them had ever seen her show anger before, though it was short lived when Jesy loudly cleared her throat snapped at her, Jade shut up. Even High Jade knew that she didn't want to mess with Jesy.

"The girl just needs some dick," she commented.

"She just wants Liam's dick," replied Harry without missing a best. "You need to tell her to stop, Leigh. I've already told you about her, why won't you listen to me?"

"Because," Leigh-Anne closed her laptop shut, "Jade is good, Harry. Yeah, she's thirsty for Liam in the worst way and it's a problem but she hasn't crossed any major lines. I'll take care of it if she does, okay?"

Harry doubted it and had to call it. "Bullshit. Jade is annoying, she pries, and even though she surprised me and smoked, she doesn't belong around us, Leigh. You know that," Harry said sternly and his girlfriend bit her lip.

Yes, she knew that.

"And eventually she's gonna see some shit that she has no business seeing and then what? Hmm? Who's to say that she hasn't already and isn't just hanging around to compile evidence or something?"

Leigh-Anne scoffed. "Jade isn't a fed."

"She doesn't have to be to snitch on us. I don't trust her, Leigh." Harry gently held her face in both of his hands and forced her to look him in the eyes. "I don't trust her."

She tried her face away from him and Harry wouldn't let her.

"I. Don't. Trust. Her," he told her for the third time, making sure she understood and heeded his warning. 

Begrudgingly she nodded. "Alright!" she conceded, batting his hands off. "I'll start weening her after today. Are you happy now?" Because she surely wasn't.

"I'll be happy when she's gone," he answered turning away from her and going back to the living room. Harry started up the PS4 to resume playing Batman, Niall must've heard it because he sprung to life, detached himself from Jesy and sat beside Harry, gushing about the game.

Leigh-Anne sighed and went to check on Jade. She hated when Harry did that, whenever he talked to her like that it always left an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She trusted Harry and knew he wouldn't say she needed to cut Jade off solely because he didn't like her; he wasn't that petty. Harry had felt and saw something in Jade that she didn't and Leigh-Anne wanted to believe what her heart was telling her even if Harry didn't. 

"Are you still sleep?" Leigh-Anne asked softly as she opened the bedroom door.

She was mortified to see Jade standing there with a gun in her hand at it pointed at her. 

Jade grinned wickedly. A grin so wicked that Leigh-Anne could've sworn she was seeing things. Jade didn't have her 9-MM glock in her innocent hands. She didn't.

Harry was right, the bitch was nosey.

"Jade?" Leigh-Anne asked cautiously, approaching her slowly. "Put the gun down."

"Why?" Jade waved it around and Leigh-Anne stopped moving. The brunette aimed it at her own head, at the wall and lastly, back at Leigh-Anne.

"Just put it down and let me explain."

____xx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate me lol you guys should hate me too, it's okay.
> 
> I wanted this chapter to shed a bit of light on everyone's relationships/connections to one another. Polyamory dynamics are hard, believe me. And being the annoying shit that I am, I still haven't explained what they do lol
> 
> On another note...Jade has a gun. Will she pull the trigger, though? 
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated :)
> 
> -Outchea xx


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